


Baby Steps

by SleepyxAsh



Series: The Hectic Lives of Madara and Tobirama [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-18
Updated: 2018-10-18
Packaged: 2019-07-13 20:18:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 31,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16025261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyxAsh/pseuds/SleepyxAsh
Summary: The stories that Tobirama and Madara had heard about soulmates were complete bullshit. Knowing the person who you were supposed to love unconditionally for the rest of your life did not mean that you fell in love with them immediately. This was especially true for Tobirama and Madara. For them it took time, and they had to move forward in baby steps.





	1. Mortal Enemies

The battlefield was loud. His ears were throbbing from the agonized screams of the dying from both sides. Tobirama just wanted it all to end. He hated battle, and he hated taking lives more than anything else. He wanted peace as much as his older brother did, but he was no fool. He might have been sick of the loss of life, but the Uchiha did not seem to have that issue. They were a barbaric race that seemed to not care about much of anything at all, including the wellbeing of their clansmen.

They were monsters. All of them were bloodthirsty, selfish, wild monsters. It was the only explanation for why all of this was still going on…for why his life had been nothing short of a living hell for the past twenty years. He wished that he could talk some sense into them, that he could—

He immediately stopped that train of thought as he had to duck down low to keep his head attached to his shoulders, the way that he liked it. Izuna Uchiha’s eyes were swirling red as he dashed toward him again. The youngest Uchiha brother that was still alive did not seem to be in the mood today for Tobirama’s contemplative mind. That was quite alright. The battlefield was hardly a place for such thoughts anyway.

He moved forward to meet Izuna head-on, their blades clashing in between their bodies as they met once again on the battlefield. Sparks flew as they bared their teeth at each other menacingly.

Today would be the day, Tobirama decided as he looked into the hateful eyes of his sworn enemy. Today would be the day that he wiped this constant pain in neck off his list. He would never have to worry about Uchiha Izuna after he was finished.

As soon as they clashed, Tobirama pushed his blade toward Izuna, hoping to get the upper hand. With any luck, he wouldn’t have to use his new jutsu, the flying thunder god technique. When he felt his blade slipping, however, he knew that it wasn’t going to be that easy. The technique took a lot of chakra, but if he was able to manage it, then all would be good. Any other enemy that he would possibly face that day would not be as formidable as Izuna. He could afford to use it, especially if he got rid of such a large headache.

They both jumped back at the same time, and Tobirama pushed his hand forward, slamming it against Izuna’s shoulder in a way that would make it appear that he was trying to make him lose his balance and nothing more. Little did the younger Uchiha know that Tobirama was starting up his latest technique, one that would be the last that the other man would ever see.

He never took his eyes off the other man as he began to run at him again. He sheathed his sword and brought his hands forward in a series of hand signs that would mark the end of Izuna’s short life. It would be over in just two more movements….

Tobirama’s eyes widened as a brutal, unrelenting pain seared through his gut. His breath caught in his throat as his knees buckled as he was in mid-stride. He crashed down to the solid grassy ground, getting a mouthful of the plant life. He knew somewhere deep down that it was dangerous to just lay there on his stomach, but he was paralyzed. He couldn’t breathe, and the agony was so horrible that he couldn’t think. Past all of this, however, one thought stood out brilliantly in his mind.

_Soulmate! My soulmate is in trouble!_

That panicked thought was the last thing that he remembered thinking before he blacked out.

 

He woke up in a large tent on a lumpy cot. There was a heavy and warm weight sitting on his hand. He opened his eyes and turned toward the weight. All he saw was a large blob. He closed his eyes hard and opened them again. Hashirama came into view. His large eyes were bloodshot, as though he was crying. That meant that something grievous had happened, or he was happy. Both of those meant potential problems for him.

His entire body sunk ever further into the cot at the idea of that. He was exhausted, and he couldn’t remember why. What was the last thing that he remembered? He’d been fighting with Izuna, and then pain…crippling pain had blindsided him.

“I should be dead,” Tobirama murmured. His voice cracked painfully, and he winced. His throat was so dry. He flinched as a cup of water was thrusted in front of his face. Tobirama weakly reached up and grabbed the glass and brought it up to his lips, knocking it back as quickly as he could, relishing the sensation of the cool, slightly stale liquid running down his throat. Once it was finished, he held it out and Hashirama took it. Tobirama winced, expecting his brother to tackle him with a hug and was surprised when that didn’t happen. If that was the case, then Hashirama must still be worried about his condition.

“What happened?” he asked, his voice sounding quite a bit stronger than before.

“I….” Hashirama trailed off, sounding uncertain with just that one syllable. His face contorted into a worried mask that had Tobirama’s insides twisting with uncertainty. He didn’t like it when his brother looked like that. It was a cause of concern like nothing else could be.

“What happened?” Tobirama asked more firmly. “I need to know.”

“Madara and I were battling while you and Izuna were,” Hashirama said quietly. He wouldn’t meet Tobirama’s eyes, as though he was feeling guilty over something. “I managed to gain an advantage over Madara and I created a spear of wood that shot from the ground and impaled him in the stomach. I saw you go down from across the field a couple of moments later. I…you weren’t actually injured, Tobi, but you passed out and were cradling your stomach as if someone had stabbed you there…Tobi, I don’t know how to tell you this, but Mada—”

“Don’t tell me it,” Tobirama said quietly, looking down at his lap. “Don’t say anything else about it. What else is going on?”

“We’ve made a temporary truce with the Uchiha,” Hashirama said. “Izuna was inconsolable until I promised him that I would heal Madara. I haven’t mentioned anything about the connection between you and…and him. I don’t know if Izuna has connected the dots or not. I’ll leave it up to you when you want to mention something about that, or if you do something about it at all.”

Tobirama nodded slowly as he looked away from his brother and back to the white sheet that was covering his lap.

“Do you need anything else?” Hashirama questioned. His tone turned uncomfortable, and Tobirama was surprised at Hashirama’s ability to read the room. “I…I can get you whatever you want.”

“I want to be alone for a little while,” Tobirama replied. He wasn’t nearly as composed as he needed to be to speak to his brother. He felt as though he was about to break down, and Hashirama would be overbearing if he did so in front of him, which would only make the situation worse.

“I understand,” Hashirama said. “There’s a nurse just outside of the tent. Call on her if you need anything, and she’ll know where I am if you need me.”

Tobirama nodded again. He heard Hashirama leave and looked up once he was sure that he brother was gone. He sighed, feeling a sharp stab of pain and disappointment in his chest. Madara Uchiha was his soulmate. He _hated_ that damned Uchiha. It was because of him that his entire childhood had been torn to pieces. He’d be the reason that his father had turned so possessive and controlling of all of them. Why had he tried to befriend Hashirama? Why did he have to be at that stupid river that day? He’d been the reason that he’d had to betray his brother’s trust and follow him on his father’s orders.

“I don’t care if he’s my soulmate,” Tobirama muttered to himself as he crossed his arms over his chest. “He’s my enemy and I hate him. I will never fall in love with someone so cold and callous.” Fate had really messed up with this one. He didn’t care if he was destined to be with him. It was never going to happen.


	2. Coworking Enemies

Madara was in a terrible mood. Hashirama was a total prick, and he was wondering, not for the first time, how they had become best friends. That friendly persona that Hashirama put on—because Madara refused to believe that it was natural persona—had to be a trap to reel people in. After they were trapped, he used this sweet personality to manipulate them into doing things that they’d rather cut their own limbs off than do. Sadly, Madara had no proof of this theory because Hashirama was _always_ cheerful and kind.

He grumbled under his breath angrily about his friend as he reached the hokage tower. He was still seething as he marched up the rounded stairs that lined the walls. “Stupid Senju,” He muttered angrily as he pushed the door to his office open. He sighed, his shoulders sagging in defeat as he looked at the intruder in the room. Tobirama Senju was sitting in one of the two chairs in front of his desk, which was piled with a liberal amount of paperwork that he really needed to get finished.

Tobirama turned around to look at him, his expression conveyed total boredom, and possible disapproval. “You’re late, Uchiha.”

“I’m not late,” Madara replied waspishly. “You’re just insufferably early. Do you always show up places before you’re scheduled to? Honestly, Senju, it’s a bit presumptuous to believe that you’re wanted in my office for any longer than intended.”

“It’s a bit presumptuous of you to make it sound as though I want to be here,” Tobirama responded, his voice as flat as ever. “I promise you, Uchiha, that I’m not the one pressing my company upon you. If you have an issue with this, then you should take it up with my elder brother. I promise you that he’s already aware of how unhappy I am with this arrangement.”

Madara opened his mouth to respond, but he felt the air in his lungs just escape through his mouth soundlessly. What was he supposed to say to that? Tobirama was obviously as pissed off as he was with what was going on. It didn’t make Madara feel any better, but it was nice to know that he wasn’t the only person that was angry at the Hokage.

He sighed and walked around his desk and sat down on his chair, leaning forward as he rifled through the papers, until he found the small stack pertaining to the academy. “The complaints that I’ve heard about this,” Madara mused as he looked through the different replies from the clans, “is that they’re afraid that favoritism will happen depending on the instructor. The Nara clan teachers will favor those from the Nara clan, the Senju teachers will favor the Senju, the Uchiha teachers will favor those with Uchiha blood…you get the picture.”

“The solution is obvious,” Tobirama replied. “We can avoid that by ensuring that the teachers will not have any students from their own clans in their classroom. Of course, the teachers are going to be thoroughly checked out. They’ll be judged based on skill, temperament, personality…the heads of the clans know this. I’m not sure why they’re worried that we’re going to just slap something together haphazardly.”

He’d actually been questioning that same thing himself, not that he was going to tell Senju that. “I don’t know why they think that,” Madara replied as he shuffled around the papers again, looking down at the rest of the comments that had come through the different clans. “There’s a couple more worries as well.”

“Yes,” Tobirama agreed. Madara lazily looked up and saw that the other man was nodding his head. “They were about teaching jutsu pertaining to their clans individually.”

“It seems to me that they’re afraid that with all of the students going to an academy, their children will not have an advantage over other kids,” Madara sighed. “They seem to be under the impression that everyone is going to learn secret jutsu from other clans.”

“We’re hardly going to break tradition like that,” Tobirama muttered, his tone making it clear that he thought that the leaders with this fear were idiots. Madara found himself agreeing with this. “We’re a village now, and we need to learn to trust one another, or we’re never going to properly come together like Hashirama wanted.”

“It’ll end up working out,” Madara said absently. He tensed as he realized that he’d attempted to reassure Tobirama. He slowly looked over at the other man and saw that he was looking at Madara with a raised eyebrow. Madara just scowled back before he turned and looked down at the papers again. He wanted to tell Tobirama to wipe that look off his face, but Madara felt as though it would be admitting that something had just happened…which _nothing_ had happened.

An awkward silence ensued, and Madara felt as though the air itself was suffocating him. He knew that he needed to break the tension. His eyes flickered up to Tobirama, who was looking down at a few papers in his hand, though there was a certain tenseness in his shoulders that wasn’t there a few moments ago.

“I think that the best way to go with this,” Madara spoke up wearily, “is to have a member of each clan present when we interview the teachers. I know that it might make individuals nervous, but if they can make it through that kind of pressure, then they’ll be even better candidates for it. Then, at the next meeting, we can just assure them that no secret jutsu are going to be taught at the school. It’ll remain the clan’s responsibility to teach their own children those jutsu and anything else that falls out of the academy’s standards.”

“Alright,” Tobirama said. “It’s not a bad idea at all.” He pushed himself from the chair and said, “We can finish this off later. We have another week before the next meeting. We still have a lot of paperwork to get through. I doubt that either of us want to stay behind any longer than we have to.”

Before Madara could reply, Tobirama was already gone.

If Madara’s frame could deflate anymore than it already had, he was sure that was when it happened. It had been almost two years since Madara had been wounded by Hashirama on the battlefield. It had been a mortal wound, and he would have died within minutes if Hashirama hadn’t saved him. It had been two years since Izuna had told him the worst news of his life…that Tobirama Senju, of all people, was his soulmate. The thought made his stomach churn.

He felt so ripped off by the universe. What kind of sick joke was this? It made him ill just thinking about it. Tobirama was so callous and cold. It was as though he didn’t feel anything at all. A man like that couldn’t be Madara’s soulmate. He would think that Izuna was mistaken or lying for the sake of a sick joke, but he knew better. Izuna hadn’t been Tobirama’s largest fan when he’d told him, but he and Tobirama had gotten progressively closer over the time that they had been in the village together. They were actually really good friends. So, there was never a point in time that Izuna would have lied about something so serious.

“I knew that you guys could get along!” Hashirama’s sing-song voice reached his ears, grating against him and causing his temper to flare.

“Fuck off, Senju,” Madara snapped. He knew that all Hashirama wanted was for he and Tobirama to get along. He had no ulterior motives. The dufus had no idea that he and Tobirama were soulmates. Madara had sworn Izuna into secrecy about it the day that he had learned of it, and neither of the brothers had breathed a word about it to anyone else. This wasn’t Hashirama trying to get them to love each other, so much as like each other. It had been a battle that Hashirama had been waging for two years. It was also a battle that the other man was losing gracelessly but refused to admit defeat.

He looked up and saw that Hashirama was positively wilting in his office. “Why are you so angry?” Hashirama asked him weakly. “I figured that you’d be happy! There were no slamming doors or yelling this time around. It sounds like you guys are really making progress with each other!”

“I already told you that I had no interest in working with him,” Madara snapped. “He’s a prick! I do it because you’re the hokage and I will listen to what you say, but that doesn’t mean that I’m happy about it. Just remember that there will _never_ be a time where I’m happy working with your brother.”

He looked away from Hashirama again, not wanting to see his pouting face. He wanted to stay angry. There was no reason for him to feel guilty about telling Hashirama the truth.

~~~

Tobirama needed a drink. He grimaced as he looked down at the paperwork that was laying in front of him on his desk. He didn’t know why that one mindless comment that Madara said was causing this sort of reaction from him. He felt…sad. He’d had to rush out of the room before he could lose the cold, blank mask that he always wore while the other was around. It was bad enough that he was forced to be in the same building as the other man. Why was his brother pushing Madara on him? It was obvious that the other man detested him as much as Tobirama disliked Madara.

He was going to have to talk to Hashirama about this. It had been a while since they’d had a conversation about this, but it looked as though Tobirama was going to have to go through another mortifying half hour to press the fact that Tobirama didn’t _want_ to be around Madara into Hashirama’s head. If this went on anymore, Tobirama already knew he was going to just get confused and it would make him upset. He’d managed to stay civil around Madara for the sake of his brother and the rest of the village. If he had to keep this up, then there was no way that he was going to keep his composure, and everything that he had been striving for would be for nothing.

There was a low knock on his door, and he looked up as it opened. Izuna Uchiha was standing in the doorway. He was looking at Tobirama with a sympathetic smile. Izuna knew that Tobirama had no use for his brother. Tobirama never spoke to Izuna about his frustrations when it came to the elder Uchiha, but Izuna always seemed to sense when Tobirama was on edge because of Madara. He always said the same thing.

“I know he’s difficult, Tobirama,” Izuna said. “I keep telling you that maybe you two need to sit down and try and talk out your differences. You never know, maybe you guys could become friends.”

“I don’t want to be friends with him, Izuna,” Tobirama replied, pushing away the papers. It was nearing noon, and he didn’t anyone around the tower would even question him taking an early lunch, since he’d never done it before. “I want to keep doing exactly what I’m doing now.” Tobirama pushed himself to his feet and walked toward Izuna and the doorway. “We’re coworkers, which is more than I ever wanted us to be. We’ll stay this way from now on.”

“There’s no reason not to keep an open mind,” Izuna pressed, following him out into a hallway.

“I’m not being close-minded,” Tobirama insisted as they walked together down the hallway, passing a few exhausted workers as they went. “I’m being practical. Our village doesn’t need us trying to become friends and it blow up to the point where we can’t be civil with each other anymore.”

“So,” Izuna said, practically skipping down the stairs, as though he had thought of something that Tobirama hadn’t. “The reason that you refuse to make friends is for the village’s sake? If the village, in a couple of years, or so, had started to stabilize enough for you to take that chance, would you?”

Tobirama should have known that Izuna was going to go for that loophole. He rolled his eyes at the pushiness of the statement, but he nodded all the same, even if he knew that he would never bother attempting to make friends with Madara. “I guess I would.”

Izuna would never remember that promise. He would be distracted by the next pretty girl that walked by and forget that the conversation ever happened.

He didn’t understand why Hashirama and Izuna were so adamant about he and Madara becoming friends. It was pushy and annoying. Why couldn’t they just leave him alone about it? They were still enemies, but they were coworkers. That was more than Tobirama ever wanted to be with Madara, so Izuna and Hashirama would have to get over it. They were coworking enemies, and that was all they would ever be, Tobirama was sure of it.


	3. Enemies for the Sake of it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't been putting up notes! The website wasn't letting me! I promise that I wasn't trying to be snotty. Thank you all for the ones that have bothered to stop by and read!

“I don’t get why you hate him so much,” Izuna sighed. They were in Tobirama’s house, the other making himself a little too at home as they sat on the couch in his living room. Tobirama was trying to read, but the other would have none of it.

“You know why I dislike him,” Tobirama sighed, shutting the book that he had been reading on Uzumaki seals, a gift from Hashirama’s betrothed for his birthday. “Get your disgusting feet off my coffee table, Uchiha. Honestly, were you and your brother both raised by wolves?”

“Well, the Senju’s rumor for us was that we were mindless savages,” Izuna said with a smirk. He leaned forward, setting his elbows on his knees as he waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Admit it Senju…you like ‘em rough and untamed. I’m sure that Madara could satisfy that desire if you’d only—”

Izuna shut up as he ducked down with an unmanly yelp. The thick book sailed over his head and crashed into the wall separating the living room from his kitchen.

“Tell me,” Tobirama snapped as he got up to fetch the book that he’d just thrown, “does everything that comes out of your mouth have to be perverted? I doubt that there’s a dirtier mind in the village.”

“It’s a curse,” Izuna sighed sarcastically, stretching back. Tobirama didn’t miss the way that the other’s feet settled themselves back on the coffee table. Tobirama rolled his eyes and bent down to grab the book, only to fling it forward again, smirking to himself as he nailed Izuna on the back of the head. The other man jolted forward and nearly fell off the couch before reaching up and rubbing the tender spot on his scalp.

“What did I say about your feet?” Tobirama asked as he walked over to grab the book, yet again.

“You’re in one foul mood,” Izuna muttered, as he leaned back in the couch once again, though this time a good deal more hesitantly.

“You’ll have to forgive me,” Tobirama said dryly. “I was bothered by a total idiot on the only day off I’ve had in two weeks.”

Izuna held his hands out in front of him, as if to placate Tobirama. It wasn’t working very well. Tobirama was tempted to throw him out, if only to get some peace and quiet before he had to go back into work the next day and put up with his buffoon of a brother, and his idiotic sidekick.

“I get it,” Izuna said. “Don’t worry about sparing my feeling, or anything like that. Everyone knows that Madara had no such pity for me while I was younger, either.”

Tobirama rolled his eyes at the sob story and looked at Izuna, completely unimpressed. Izuna sighed and said, “I’ll drop it all if you can give me a good reason for why you hate my brother!”

“You’re starting to sound like Madara’s advocate,” Tobirama informed Izuna. “Honestly, Uchiha, he isn’t nice enough to you for you to be this adamant.”

“He doesn’t have to be nice to me,” Izuna replied. “He’s my brother. He’s about as nice to me as I am to him. That doesn’t stop the fact that I care about him and know that he’s not really a bad person like he wants other people to think that he is. You know that he’s not a bad person either.”

“He’s stubborn, egotistical, and is a complete idiot,” Tobirama informed him, crossing his arms over his chest. “Most of the words that come out of his mouth are obnoxious, and he can’t go an hour without insulting someone.”

“You know that he can’t help that words fly out of his mouth without him thinking first,” Izuna defended. “He really is an idiot, Tobirama. There’s not much else to expect from him. You think that I’m an idiot, and you know that your older brother is an idiot. Why is Madara’s idiocy any different from that?”

“I’m not about to defend my reasons to you,” Tobirama said icily as he pushed himself up and walked into the kitchen. “Why won’t you just drop it? I must see him every day that I work. I hardly need to think about him while I’m off.” This so-called soulmate of his was starting to become more and more intrusive and annoying without him even trying to. Hashirama and Izuna were filling his life with _Madara this_ and _Madara that_ when the other man wasn’t around. He must have sneezing fits all the time with how much Izuna and Hashirama speak about him while he’s not around.

“You don’t have to defend yourself,” Izuna said, pushing himself off the couch and up to the kitchen with Tobirama. He leaned against the bar on his elbows. “As a matter of fact, I’d appreciate it if you’d just shut up and let me speak to you.”

Tobirama raised his eyebrows at that. It wasn’t very often that Izuna or anyone else that Tobirama was around was cut off by him. Izuna made it sound as though Tobirama never let them talk at all. Tobirama pulled down a cup from the cupboard and set it on the counter before he turned around and looked at Izuna, leaning against the fridge as he did so. He crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you need to speak to me about?”

“You called him stubborn, egotistical, an idiot, and obnoxious,” Izuna ticked off. “If those were good reasons for hating him, then you’d hate nearly every shinobi that has ever existed…yourself included, no offense. We’re all insane to the point of idiocy, it’s in our job description, or we would never be able to do our jobs. We’re _all_ egotistical about something. Hell, Tobirama, you’re egotistical about your intelligence. It’s definitely founded, but you are. As for obnoxiousness, have you met your brother? He’s the most obnoxious person that I’ve ever met! He can’t go an hour without turning into a blubbering, emotional mess about something, whether it’s Mito, you, or the village! Admit it, you don’t actually hate Madara at all! You’re just refusing to admit that you’re wrong, because you’re egotistical. Why don’t you stop hating him on the principal of the matter alone, and open your eyes? You might see that he’s really not a bad person! It would make the days in the office a lot more bearable if you’d just get that through your thick skull.”

After that rant, Tobirama physically threw Izuna out of his house, and it was _not_ because he was right.

Just as he slammed the door shut on the rumpled heap that was his best friend, he sneezed.

~~~

Madara watched in exasperation as Hashirama laid his head down on the stacks of papers that were on his desk. “You’ve been working for like twenty minutes!” Madara exclaimed.

“I ate too much for lunch!” Hashirama whined. “I need a nap before I’m going to be any good. Just give me a couple of hours!”

“No,” Madara snapped. “You’re going to get your work done _now_. If you don’t, you’re going to be here late, and that witch that you’re engaged to will think it’s my fault that you weren’t home on time.”

“Don’t call Mito a witch! You’re so mean to me,” Hashirama said with a sniffle. “You’re almost as bad as Tobirama. Why don’t either of you have any pity for me?”

“Get up and get to work!” Madara repeated heartlessly. “Don’t compare me to that ice king either. It’s not a way to get onto my lenient side.”

“Why do you hate him so much?”

“Because he’s an asshole,” Madara said immediately. That should have been obvious. He didn’t even know why his friend was asking.

“But you’re an asshole too, Madara,” Hashirama pointed out.

Madara didn’t bother to even pretend to be insulted by the observation. He was aware of his asshole-ish tendencies, and he knew that everyone else that knew him was aware of them as well. “Two assholes can’t get along,” Madara insisted instead, going along with Hashirama’s argument.

“You and your brother get along just fine most times,” Hashirama pointed out, not seeming to have an issue calling Izuna one as well. He supposed that was alright since he wasn’t trying to deny the fact that Tobirama was one too. He guessed it was nice to know that the hokage wasn’t blind to the faults of his inner circle…not really.

“My brother is a different kind of asshole,” Madara defended.

“He’s a horrible flirt, and is very loud about it,” Hashirama pointed out. “I figured that you’d find Tobirama more tolerable given your personality.”

Madara scowled, not liking that Hashirama was using _logic_ of all things to try and argue his point with him. Hashirama was not a logical person, and when he tried to use his brain for arguments, he sounded like his brother…Madara hated it.

“Well, I don’t,” Madara snapped, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly. He blinked as he realized what Hashirama was doing. “Quit trying to change the subject, Senju! You have paperwork to do! Since your brother isn’t here today, it’s my job to make sure that you do your job. I’m not willing to hear his mouth about it if you don’t do what you’re supposed to, so get to work!”

Hashirama shrunk back, clearly startled. He sobered immediately and said, “You’re trying awfully hard to get off the subject. I can stay on this subject and do my work, you know?”

“Really?” Madara asked in disbelief. “I don’t think that you could.”

“I could!” Hashirama insisted as he picked up a pen and looked down at the first sheet of paper in front of him that needed his signature. He looked down at the paper, scanning through it to get the general idea of what it was for before he looked up at Madara. “I’m serious about that point, though, Madara. I thought that you and Tobirama would get along pretty well, given his temperament. He mostly stays to himself, after all. It’s not like he really does all that much to antagonize you.”

Madara scowled at Hashirama as the other man looked down at the paper once again, bringing the pen down to the small blank to sign his name. He pushed it to the side and started on the next one.

“It’s like you’re trying to insinuate that the arguments that we get into are my fault,” Madara snapped. He was going to let it go and pray that Hashirama just dropped the subject as well, but that last part of his comment had rubbed him the wrong way.

“Some of them are,” Hashirama remarked, glancing up at him for a moment before he looked back down. “I’d never say that it was all your fault, but an argument can’t happen unless there are at least two parties involved, or it’s just one person looking like an idiot. That means that it’s both of your faults that you fight. I’ve been trying to tell you both for years to just sit down and talk it out, but neither of you will listen to me. I know that Izuna has been trying to do the same thing as well. Honestly, what are you so scared of? Are you afraid that you’ll actually like each other if you gave each other a chance?”

“Why would I ever be afraid of _that_?” Madara asked incredulously. As if that would ever happen. Tobirama would have to be likable for anyone to like him. Hashirama and Toka didn’t count because they were related, and Izuna didn’t count because his brother was an idiot. “Anyway, I think that the better question would be why are you and Izuna both so hung up on this point? Your brother and I are fine with our relationship the way that it is, so why should we bother changing it?”

“You’re around each other all of the time,” Hashirama remarked without skipping a beat as he signed off on yet another document and went onto the next one. Madara saw that he was actually working and felt comfortable enough to grab a pile of his own paperwork and start reading through it. “Izuna and I both feel the same way. You should have a healthier relationship with each other. Being around so much animosity all the time can’t be good for the two involved. The people around you feel it, so I know that it has to be wearing down on you guys.”

Madara sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Wasn’t a soulmate supposed to make life easier and better? If that was the case, then why was he getting bitched at _more_ since Tobirama came into the picture?

“Just drop it, Hashi,” Madara sighed. “I’m feeling more worn out now because we’re talking about it than I do when Tobirama and I fight. I don’t want to like him, so I’m not going to. You and Izuna nagging me about it is going to change absolutely nothing.”

“Aha!” Hashirama said, sounding more elated than Madara’s answer had warranted. He slammed his pen down, causing Madara to look up from the file that he’d been perusing. Hashirama was positively beaming at him, as though he had said something that the other man had been waiting years to hear. Madara carefully thought back to what he had just told Hashirama and confirmed that nothing about it had been positive.

“What?” Madara asked slowly.

Hashirama pointed a finger directly into Madara’s face, nearly poking him in the nose as he shouted, “You admit that the only reason why you don’t like Tobirama is because you don’t want to! You just dislike him from principal alone! I knew that we were making progress!”

Madara felt something in the back of his head snap as he slowly put his files down and stood up. “I’m going for a walk,” he said in an eerily calm voice. “I’m going to be gone for about fifteen minutes. When I get back here, you will have fifteen minutes worth of work done, and will be silent for the rest of the night, or so help me, I’m going to be imprisoned for treason.”

Hashirama’s smile slowly slipped off his face as Madara turned around and walked out of the room. Once he was out of the hallway, his nose tickled, and he had to cover his nose as a powerful sneeze overtook him. He sniffled as he recovered and wondered if he was getting sick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you all enjoyed the chapter! The next one should be up soon. Feel free to tell me what you thought of the chapter, and if you would like to see anything else! :)
> 
> Next chapter: Neutral


	4. Neutral

Madara sighed as he looked over at his unannounced house guest. Tobirama looked decidedly uncomfortable as he sat at Madara’s kitchen table with a cup of hot tea in his hands. He watched at Tobirama looked down at the wooden surface of the furniture, refusing to glance up, as though he was worried about making eye contact with Madara at all.

“Are you going to tell me what this is about, Senju?” Madara finally asked as he took a seat across from Tobirama. It was nearing dark out, and the sky had taken on a large overcast. It was going to start raining soon, and Madara didn’t want to have Tobirama here when it started. He would be bound by courtesy to invite him to stay until the downpour was over.

“Your buffoon of a best friend,” Tobirama said quietly. There was no heat in his voice as he spoke. He almost sounded resigned.

“What has Hashirama made you do this time?” Madara asked. It wasn’t often that Hashirama forced Tobirama to do something that he didn’t want to, but when he did, the results were always very catastrophic. The elder always insisted that it was for the younger’s own good, but it would always cause Tobirama more trouble than anything else.

Tobirama closed his eyes again and looked down at the table. “I…I don’t want this to be because of Hashirama.” He sighed and straightened up, getting rid of the meekness that had taken him over only moments ago. He looked up at Madara, a certain steeliness in his red eyes. “I think that we need to talk, Madara. This entire thing between us has really gotten ridiculous, and it’s gone on long enough.”

At that, Madara’s eyes widened and he backed up, shaking his head. “There’s nothing wrong with what we are! I’m not speaking about this with you right now, Senju. This isn’t the right time for it.”

“I’m not asking you for miracles,” Tobirama said pointedly. “I’m not about to sit here and beg you either. We’re both better than that, Madara.”

Madara didn’t speak, not even when Tobirama used his first name. It was the first time that it had ever happened, and it was doing funny things to his stomach. He didn’t know how strong his voice would be if he did speak.

“We’ve been at some sort of unspoken war for at least three years,” Tobirama continued. “I’m sick of fighting. I’m twenty-three, you’re twenty-five! I think we’re a bit too old for all of this. All I’m asking is that you hear me out. I think we have more to speak about than you might think.”

“I’m willing to extend a truce,” Madara spoke up before Tobirama could go any further. Madara didn’t know if there was ever going to be a time that he would be interested in having this sort of conversation with Tobirama, especially with the large secret that he really doesn’t want to blurt out. He had issues with keeping his mouth from spewing out information that he would rather keep silent when he was nervous…and this entire subject was making him increasingly nervous as time went on. “Just leave it alone for right now, though.”

“Can I ask why?” Tobirama questioned. “I don’t want to have to go through with this conversation either, but it’s necessary. Isn’t it just better to get it over with now?”

“No,” Madara snapped. “Just leave it alone for right now!”

Tobirama raised an eyebrow at him, and Madara felt himself flushing. He figured that the snappy behavior wasn’t something that someone who was willing to extend a truce should have.

“If you’re not interested in an olive branch, then just say so,” Tobirama said. “I’m not going to force peace on you. I just figured that you might be sick of all of the pointless animosity.” He pushed himself to his feet and pushed his chair in before walking away from the table, closer to the door. “I’ll see you in the office tomorrow. Just think about it, I guess. Even if you don’t want to be cordial, just think about Hashirama and Izuna. It’ll get them off your back.”

Before Madara got a chance to reply—he didn’t know what he was supposed to say to that, anyway—Tobirama walked to the door and let himself out, leaving him alone. The Uchiha felt his heart stuttering uncomfortably as he felt panic well inside of him. He and Tobirama couldn’t be friends; he was certain that would only lead to disaster.

Izuna slid inside of the door some time later, it could have been five minutes or a couple of hours. Madara was too distraught to care. He hadn’t even managed to move away from the middle of his small dining area, where he had watched Tobirama leave.

“Why are you looking at the door like you just saw a ghost?” Izuna asked. He had managed to get close to Madara without the other really noticing. He felt a pressure on his temper. It was gone before it was back again, repeating it constantly. It took Madara too long to realize that Izuna was poking him. He reflexively reached up, grasping onto his annoying brother’s wrist.

“Do you always have to be insufferable?” Madara demanded, his voice breaking at the end of his sentence pathetically.

“What’s wrong?” Izuna asked, ignoring Madara’s demand all together. “Are you feeling alright?”

“Tobirama was here,” Madara blurted out, unable to keep himself together anymore. Freezing up hadn’t helped him at all. If anything, it had made it so much worse. He’d been thinking over what had happened and getting even more worked up as time had passed with him standing still.

He wrung his hands together as he moved away from his brother and started pacing back and forth from the living room back to the dining area, suddenly unable to stay still. “Why was Tobirama here? Is there something happening that you haven’t told me about?”

Izuna sounded genuinely offended, and Madara turned to look at him, pausing. His brother was a diva, there was no denying it. That bit of normalcy was all that he needed to him to calm down. He wilted and shuffled to the couch, dropping down and hiding his face in his hands.

“No, you fool,” Madara grumbled. “Don’t be an idiot. I already told you that will never happen.”

“Then why was he here, and why do you look so upset?” Izuna pressed.

“He offered up an olive branch,” Madara said. “He wants to stop arguing, and possibly get friendlier with each other. Oh, sweet Kami, Izuna! It’s horrible!”

“Oh, okay,” Izuna said solemnly, his voice so sarcastic that Madara immediately felt the need to backhand the hell out of him. “That sounds so horrible, Madara. I’m not sure how you managed to keep yourself put together so well the entire time.”

Madara looked up and scowled at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“I mean that he’s your damn soulmate!” Izuna shouted, seeming to snap himself. “I feel like slapping sense into both of you when I see you guys taking something so amazing and wonderful and squandering it! You’re both so lucky, a lot of people don’t even get to meet their soulmates, and you’re willing to throw it all away over something as stupid as pride!”

“It’s not pride!” Madara snarled at him. “It has nothing to do with pride at all. I’m not throwing it away either. There would have to be something there to throw anything away!”

“There’s nothing there because you’re not letting there be anything!” Izuna insisted. “You’re throwing away the potential for something between the two of you! If it’s not pride, then what could be stopping you?”

Madara opened his mouth to reply, but he felt his throat close, refusing to let anything through.

“Go on, Madara,” Izuna pressed, his face scrunched up in frustration. “Tell me why I’m having to watch you go through this if it isn’t because you’re too damn proud to let go of the past and move on with your life!”

“It’s because I’m scared!” Madara snarled before he could stop himself. He immediately felt himself wilt as shame crawled all over him. Even as mortification slithered through him, he couldn’t stop himself from talking. “Honestly, Izuna…Tobirama _hates_ me, even if he’s trying to make an effort towards peace. I haven’t changed at all since we’ve formed this village. He hated me then, and he’s going to hate me now. I…I don’t know if I could handle rejection from him, of all people.”

Izuna’s face morphed from near anger to understanding. He shut his eyes and let out a low sigh. “Quit thinking long term, first off” Izuna said immediately as he opened his eyes back up and looked at Madara with a soft half-smile. “I don’t think you understand something that’s really important. No, Madara, you haven’t changed much, but that might not be a bad thing. Yes, you have some bad points that all make us want to slap the hell out of you, but you’re not a horrible person, over all. It’s more than we can say about a lot of ninja. Quit being so down on yourself and start looking at your good points.”

“I don’t—”

“I’m not telling you that you guys have to go and get married,” Izuna sighed, not letting Madara even start making an argument. “Don’t even force yourself to become his friend. I’m not telling yourself for force anything, but I also mean don’t force yourself to hate him. Just let things go the way that they’re meant to go without sabotaging yourself.”

~~~

Tobirama just finished reading over a particularly boring document sometime midmorning the day after he had tried to make peace with Madara. Legalities wasn’t one of Tobirama’s strong suits. He much preferred to handle research and academics, but he figured no one really wanted to read about who should get first dibs from farmers from across the country, and _someone_ had to do it…so why not him?

He contemplated whether it should be civilians of the town or the shinobi, but his mind wasn’t really on it. He was distracted by Madara. His eye twitched in annoyance as he even thought the name of that stubborn jerk. He sat the pages down before he could crinkle or tear them by tightening his hands into fists.

As if thinking of him was enough to summon Madara into his presence, there was a quick knock on his door. He looked up and saw the eldest Uchiha walk into the room. He was trying his best to keep his face smooth and emotionless. He failed painfully, but Tobirama didn’t call him out on it, too curious and amused to make it stop.

“We’re not going to talk about it,” he said abruptly, not waiting for a greeting. The door shut behind him as he stepped inside. “We’re not going to speak about it anymore. I don’t dislike you, Senju, and I think that should be enough for our brothers. Can we just keep it like that?”

Tobirama felt his eyebrow raise again, something that seemed to be happening more and more with Madara around. He couldn’t hide his emotions completely with Madara there anymore. It was disconcerting.

“I guess we can, Uchiha,” Tobirama replied, leaning forward a little. “I’m fine with being neutral if you are.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it. It was supposed to be a lot more humorous than this, but things got serious between Izuna and Madara as I was writing...who was I to tell them no. I hope that you enjoyed, and please feel free to tell me what you think!


	5. Friends

It didn’t take Tobirama very long to realize that he and Madara were eerily compatible. It was annoying, if only because he had been wrong for so long. Madara was a funny person with a temper that was as fiery as the jutsu that he used. That probably should have been something that Tobirama disliked, but he found it to be endearing. It was easy to rile him up and watch the effects.

_Neutral_ , Tobirama mentally rolled his eyes at the term that he had used to describe what he and Madara were going to be quite a few weeks ago. He had heard a lot of stories about soulmates, how it was love at first sight, and how once they met each other, they could no longer live without the other. They made it sound as though it was an immediate thing. That was complete bullshit. Tobirama didn’t love Madara, and he was certain that he would be able to live without him. They both went out on missions regularly, Madara had been gone a month the last time that he had left out, and Tobirama hadn’t really missed him.

That didn’t stop Tobirama from thoroughly enjoying the time that he and Madara spent together. He made sure that he didn’t go out of his way to seek Madara out too much, not wanting to be overbearing and scare Madara away. At first, it had been Tobirama making all the effort toward this inevitable feeling of friendship and comradery, greeting the Uchiha kindly when he found him, seeking him out voluntarily to ask questions about different policies that were trying to go through for the village. They had started working together on different projects around the village, even teaming up on a couple of shorter missions that would carry them outside of the village for a couple of days. It was nothing too dangerous that would out Tobirama’s precious secret, but it was enough to solidify the idea that they made a great team.

Eventually, Madara began reaching out as well. It was nothing dramatic, but he would greet him as well, and had even suggested that they go out for lunch together a few times, to discuss business, of course. It was quite nice, however, even if they only really talked about what was going on in the office. Of course, they slipped up and began speaking out personal matters every now and again, but Tobirama was always careful to make sure that they never strayed into anything too personal. They really were friends, and Tobirama liked it too much to worry about how he would have reacted to that just over two years ago.

Tobirama looked down at his watch, stopping his train of thought about Madara. The other man was on his mind because he had agreed to go with him to the new ramen shop in the middle of town for lunch. They had both been curious about how it would be and decided to take lunch there and get some paperwork on the academy finished while they were there. He only had fifteen minutes before he was supposed to meet Madara and walk there with the other man. Why had Hashirama demanded to see him so close to his lunch time? Tobirama couldn’t hide the small grimace that contorted his features. It must be important, and it wouldn’t be good kind of important, because Hashirama would have ran down the halls, shouting it for the entire world to hear, if that had been the case.

He opened the door to his brother’s office and walked inside without waiting for an invitation. He didn’t want to have to wait any longer for an answer. “You called for me, brother?” Tobirama questioned, taking a seat in the chair that was sitting in front of the Hokage’s desk. “What can I do for you?”

“An assassination mission hit the circulation desk this morning,” Hashirama replied. “Normally, we’d refuse, but this is a pair of missing shinobi that we’ve been after for quite a while.”

“Who?” Tobirama questioned, his interest peaking. Hashirama was correct about refusing to take on those kinds of missions. Hashirama believed all lives, no matter how despicable, were very valuable.

“The gold and silver brothers,” Hashirama reported. “They’ve been giving us a hard time on the outskirts of the Land of Fire and they’re steadily moving closer to the center of the country. The daimyo himself has ordered for their execution. They’ve been disgraced from their own country and traveled here. Instead of trying to keep their heads low, they’ve been harassing the people from the poorer villages. They’ve murdered over a dozen people. The daimyo has asked for either a Senju or an Uchiha to go after them. I would send Madara, but he just got back. You’re the next strongest shinobi in our village and have the best sensory skills in either of the two clans. I’ll send you and two other shinobi of your choosing. Tell me the names and I’ll have them pack up and meet you at the gates in two hours.”

“Toka and Izuna,” Tobirama said immediately. It wasn’t a contest. They were both capable fighters and would be bearable companions to have with him while he travelled.

“Good choice,” Hashirama approved. He smiled widely at Tobirama once their business was settled. He leaned forward a little and said, “Be careful on the trip, and don’t be reckless.”

Tobirama rolled his eyes. “I’m no fool, brother. I’ll be sure to be safe. Toka and Izuna will be there to watch my back as well. There is nothing to worry about.”

“In that case,” Hashirama said. “I’ll see you when you get back. You should go ahead and get to Madara before he thinks you stood him up.”

Tobirama opened his mouth to reply, but no words came out. It wasn’t very often that his brother was able to come out on top with a snappy comment like this. It caught him off guard and the insinuation in his voice actually made Tobirama’s cheeks flush. He quickly looked away from his brother and walked to the door.

“I’ll see you when I return from the mission, brother,” Tobirama managed to get out calmly before he walked out into the hallway.

~~~

The walk to the new ramen joint—Madara thought that it was called Ichiraku’s—was very nice. They didn’t speak very much, but neither of them were the most chatty of individuals. It was something that Madara liked a lot about Tobirama. The other man seemed to enjoy a companionable silence as much as Madara did. That wasn’t to say that they didn’t have good conversations when the mood struck them.

“How has your day been so far?” Tobirama spoke up first about halfway to the restaurant. “I heard that Hashirama had you meet with the Yamanaka clan head today. How did he take to you having to inform him that he had to keep his little brats on a tighter leash?”

“As good as could be expected,” Madara replied, smiling a little at the memory of the insulted look that the blond man had graced him with. “He demanded that I apologize for insulting the honor of the clan. I told him that I would as soon as he got the seven brats that had mind transferred into those ambassadors to go and beg for forgiveness.” Madara sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, his smile disappearing “I just hope that Hashirama is still going to be able to smooth things over with them. The last thing that we need is enemies. We already have enough problems with that damned lightning village. The Mizukage is going to be pissed when he hears about this. I know that I say that I have faith in Hashirama, but your brother really is an idiot and what if he screws this up and pisses him off even more? I don’t think that this village can take—”

“Calm down, Madara,” Tobirama cut him off, his voice sounding completely serene, as though he didn’t have a care in the world. It was soothing, as though all Madara’s fears were for nothing at all and he could just let them go. “If you keep thinking about it, then you’re just going to get yourself worked up. You need to keep yourself as collected as possible.”

“Easy for you to say,” Madara grumbled. “I don’t think that you ever get stressed out. Did Hashirama just completely kill that part of you when you were younger or something?” He turned to look at the other man, waiting for an answer.

He saw Tobirama’s lips quirk up in a small, understated smile. It was a look that Madara was getting accustomed to seeing on occasion. It took him a while to realize that the expression was a genuine smile from him, and it made him happier than it should to know that he was able to put that look on Tobirama’s face.

“I will have you know that I feel anxiety,” Tobirama replied. “Living with Hashirama for so long has just put things into perspective for me. He’s a walking disaster most of the time, but I can recognize a real problem when I see it. You’ll be with him tomorrow to smooth things over properly. I have faith in you not to screw up.”

Madara frowned at Tobirama’s reply. “The way you say it makes it sound as though you’re not going to be there with us.”

“I’m not,” Tobirama informed him as the little restaurant came into sight. It was mostly empty, except for one civilian sitting at one of the stools that were lined against the counter. He and Tobirama sat on the other side of the space. Madara politely returned the owner’s greeting before he turned and looked at Tobirama questioningly.

“What do you mean you’re not going to be there?” Madara demanded. “I _need_ you there with me! You’re the only person that can completely squash your brother’s idiocy at a moment’s notice.”

“I would be there if I could,” Tobirama assured Madara, “but I’m afraid that I’m being sent away on a mission. I’ll be leaving out once we’re finished with our lunch.”

Madara didn’t say anything else as the owner walked up to them to take their orders. Once they had made their choices, the man walked away and Madara tried his best to sort out the emotions that were twisting around in his stomach. “What kind of mission is it?” he finally asked.

“I can’t say much about it,” Tobirama admitted, looking away from Madara and down at the counter in front of him. His muscles visibly tensed, and Madara had a distinct feeling that he was being sent out to do something that he didn’t want to do.

“What can you say about it?” Madara pressed on. Part of Madara wondered if he was being too pushy, but he decided that he didn’t care about that right now. Concern was pooling in the pit of his stomach as different scenarios of what could be calling Tobirama, of all people, away from the village.

“It’s an assassination,” Tobirama murmured, still not looking away from the countertop. “There’s been some issues with a couple of shinobi, and I’ve been given an order to eliminate the problem.” He said it without emotion. Months ago, Madara would have judged him for the carelessness in his voice, but he knew better now. Just because Tobirama sounded like he didn’t care didn’t mean that was the case. It was just easier for Tobirama to act like it didn’t affect him, and Madara was more than happy to let him have that.

“I see,” Madara replied as large bowls were placed in front of them. He thanked the owner and grabbed his chopsticks. He suddenly wasn’t all that hungry as concern for the other man clawed at his stomach. Death happened, it was very common in the ninja world, but it was rare that their village sent shinobi out actively seeking to kill someone. Most of the time it just happened while they were fighting the enemy. Madara himself hadn’t actively sought someone to kill since the village had been instated.

“Yeah,” Tobirama deadpanned, clearly not sure what else to say about it. Madara regretted bringing it up, but he was glad that he knew what Tobirama was about to get himself into. Changing the subject, Tobirama asked, “Did you bring those documents that we need to go over? We can start working on them now.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Madara replied immediately. “Just eat up. You don’t know the next time you’ll get a peaceful meal.”

“Keep that up, Madara,” Tobirama said, his voice taking on a humorous edge, “and I’ll that that you’re actually worried about me.”

“What can I say,” Madara shot back with a smile, “the village would be much duller without you in it, so I’d rather you come back in one piece. You’re no good to me if you come back in pieces.”

Tobirama grabbed his own chopsticks and swirled them into the hot broth, pulling up some noodles. “In that case, I’ll go ahead and tell you that I plan on coming back just fine. I’ve already assured Hashirama that I would be okay. Besides, it’s not like I’m going to be going alone. Izuna and Toka are coming with me too.”

Madara felt a little bit better. All three of them were very capable shinobi, and they would watch each other’s backs. He nodded in acceptance of this, glad to know about his brother in case Izuna didn’t have a chance to come and see him before he left. Madara would seek his brother out himself to say goodbye and see him off.

They finished off their food in relatively good spirits considering what Tobirama was going to be doing after they departed. Tobirama moved to grab his wallet, but Madara waved him off. He already had his out and handed the owner the money for both the meals, telling him to keep the change. He and Tobirama turned away from the shop and walked a few meters away together. That was as far as they would go with each other, however. The Senju compound was in the opposite direction as the hokage tower from the noodle joint.

Tobirama turned to leave, but Madara spoke up quickly before he could step away. “Good luck, Tobirama,” Madara blurted out. Tobirama turned and looked at him, and Madara could feel his face heating up. He ignored his embarrassment momentarily and exchanged it for peace of mind. “Be careful and watch yourselves.”

“Don’t worry, Madara,” Tobirama said. “We’ll be back soon enough. Don’t let Hashirama wreck the village while I’m gone.”

“If you’re going to do your best,” Madara sighed good-naturedly, “I guess I can do my best as well.”

“Good to hear,” Tobirama responded. “See you in a few days.”

Madara didn’t say anything as he watched Tobirama walk away, an uneasy feeling in his gut. Something didn’t feel right, of that he was certain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you enjoyed the chapter! The next one that happens is just after the ends of this chapter. Can you imagine what is going to happen next? Feel free to let me know what you think! Thanks for reading!


	6. Mutual Realizations

Madara was half asleep. It was probably close to midnight. He’d had to stay later than he normally would getting all the documents together that he and Tobirama were supposed to partner on. He didn’t regret being too kind to let Tobirama work on the assignment when he had to go out on a mission, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t paying for it either.

He felt his eyes shut for perhaps the dozenth time that hour and opened them up again. He brought his hand up to his face to stifle a yawn. _That’s enough for tonight_ , he thought tiredly. _There’s no point in wearing myself out when the rest of the paperwork can be finished tomorrow. I’m certain that Hashirama will understand._

He brought his pen down to the paper to sign his name on the last page that he was going to do that night. He formed the _M_ on his signature before the back of his right hand started burning as though it had just been sliced open. His arm jerked in surprise and a slash of ink swooped through the document, rendering it useless, though he couldn’t find it in himself to worry very much about that when his hand was still throbbing.

He looked down at the stinging skin, which was completely unblemished, which told him that it had been Tobirama’s injury. Concern tugged at his gut, but he stifled it, reasoning that the other man was probably just fine. One didn’t have to be in a life or death situation to cut themselves with a kunai or shuriken, it was probably just—

He cursed as a hand flew up to his right cheek, around the same spot that Tobirama’s red tattoo sat. Another burning sensation was there. Panic started to rise within him as he pushed himself to his feet. _Calm down_ , Madara coached himself, _the wounds are hardly crippling. He’s still able to fight. It’s probably just some idiotic bandit with a good aim. They haven’t been gone long enough to run into any serious trouble—”_

Madara gasped as a pain in his shoulder nearly brought him to his knees. He had enough time to register that the pain was flaring from a spot that was maybe three centimeters above his subclavian artery before he was up again, officially panicked. Tobirama was in trouble. That was the only thing that he could process as he brought his hands together for a body flicker jutsu.

He appeared outside of Hashirama’s door a few moments later, panting as another bit of pain flared in his left side. He didn’t bother to knock before he barged in. “Hashirama!” Madara shouted, not bothering to mask his panic, “get your ass out here!”

He heard a loud bang and his friend appeared at the end of the hallway in front of the front door. He was shirtless, and his hair was a mess. He stumbled toward Madara, who’s leg buckled from the unexpected pain that consumed his left thigh a moment later. Hashirama caught him before he could hit the ground. He gritted his teeth against the pain and forced himself to stand. He pushed himself away from Hashirama and snapped, “Get a sensor! Tobirama’s in trouble!”

“How can you know that?” Hashirama questioned. “He’s not even in the village right now, and….” Hashirama’s voice trailed off as his eyes widened. It would have been comical if the circumstances had been any different. “You know, don’t you?”

“It doesn’t matter right now!” Madara shouted at him angrily. “Get a damn sensor ready! I have to go and help him!”

Hashirama didn’t have to be told again. He ran out of the house as he was, dashing out of sight. Madara winced as another a painful slice ripped through his back. The pain was so real that he had to force himself to remember that he wasn’t the one that was being attacked. He stumbled out of the house after Hashirama, wincing as his entire body throbbed. He had to force himself to stay on his feet. The last thing that Tobirama needed was more pain added onto the agony that he was already feeling. Madara could tell just from the points that were hurting the worst on him that Tobirama was losing a lot of blood and fast. They didn’t have long to find them.

Hashirama was in the middle of the compound with a sleepy-looking Senju that Madara didn’t know. He couldn’t bring himself to care about that. “Stay here, Madara,” Hashirama said. “I’ll go myself.”

“No,” Madara snarled. “I’ll be fine.” He wasn’t going to be left being, not when Tobirama was in so much trouble. “I can keep up. I won’t slow you down. If I do, push on without me.”

“You’re in pain,” Hashirama tried to insist. “You shouldn’t—”

Madara reached forward and grabbed his friend’s bare shoulders, shaking him roughly. “Move your ass, Hashirama. He needs help _now_!”

Hashirama sighed and nodded. “Fine, let me go and get some gear on. I have some extras in my house that you can use, Madara. Get some on yourself, Yuki, and meet us back out here in five minutes.”

Yuki nodded and turned around, dashing away from them. Hashirama turned and rushed back to his house, Madara hot on his heels. He didn’t want to have to get geared up, but he knew that there was no way that they were going to be of help if they had no tools. They would just get in the way and make things worse. Madara quickly slid on a flack jacket and snatched up kunai and shuriken as quickly as he could without slicing himself, once again conscious about the fact that Tobirama needed to keep his concentration on the fight in front of him, not any pain that Madara would cause him by carelessness.

Hashirama rushed out his room, flailing his arms like a madman. He and Madara rushed out of the room. Madara couldn’t lose concentration on his movements for even a moment. Small nicks of pain were showing up all over his body, as though Tobirama was trying to get away through trees and was hitting sharp sticks and leaves as he rushed.

_Good,_ Madara thought encouragingly, as though Tobirama would be able to hear his thoughts, _run away, Tobirama! Run away as fast as you can!_

All three shinobi ran as fast as their chakra enhancement would allow them. Yuki was leading the way. When they made it out of the village, Yuki called back to them. “They’re not actually that far away! I can feel distress, but all three of them are alright!”

“Can you tell who’s attacking them?” Madara demanded.

“I don’t know,” Yuki admitted, veering to the right as they made it into the forest past the wall. They bounded forward, picking up a little speed as they jumped from limb to limb. “The only thing that I can tell is that they have enormous chakra. It’s inhuman! They feel like they’re even stronger than you, Lord Hokage.”

Madara’s eyes widened as he remembered rumors about the Gold and Silver brothers. They had eaten the flesh of the nine-tailed fox’s stomach. If that rumor was correct, then their chakra would be enormous. It was looking as though it really was correct. Hashirama had sent Madara’s soulmate and brother out on a mission to track down and kill a pair of monsters. If he didn’t need his best friend’s help, he would punch him in the face hard enough to send him flying out of the tree. When this was over, he might still do it.

“How much farther are they?!” Madara asked, not bothering to hide the panic in his voice.

“I can’t be sure exactly,” Yuki said apologetically. “I’m not anywhere near as talented as Tobirama, but I can tell that they’re getting closer. It won’t be much longer!” Madara felt the nearly overwhelming urge to punch that man as well.

It was nearly five minutes later of rushing through when the first signs of battle showed itself. There were broken and burnt trees, still smoking. Water flooded the ground and blood was spattered against a few of the lower trunks. Madara felt his blood pressure skyrocket as panic surged through his entire body, causing him to stiffen up. He inhaled sharply, forcing himself to relax as he pushed himself even faster. He passed Hashirama and Yuki, leaving them behind as he followed the damage, taking a sharp right, and disappearing through the forest. The damage was getting steadily worse. Trees were still on fire, some of the flames flickering as others were smoldering. There were earth walls raised up all over the place and stones lodged into trees. He saw some splintered wood and totally flooded dips in the ground. More blood was starting to show up, shining freshly on the wood as he moved even faster.

He could faintly hear Hashirama and Yuki calling for him to wait for them and be careful, but he ignored it in favor of pushing forward. That was when he heard it: the faintest sounds of fighting. He dove forward, pushing himself even faster. He had his first glimpse of the battle just as an excruciating pain shot through his arm. He recognized the agony all too well: Tobirama had just shattered all the bones in his wrist. He cradled his right arm to his chest, trying his best to ignore it, knowing that he wasn’t actually hurt.

Madara jumped down to the forest floor, officially out for blood. He was going to kill these brothers even if it was the last thing that he did. He felt pain around his neck that could only be caused by bruising force being applied to skin…someone was attempting to choke Tobirama. His eyes darted to the silver-haired man that was on the ground, hovering over someone, and he knew who it was. Madara didn’t even think as he dove forward, barreling into the man and knocking him off Tobirama.

He heard the other man cough and saw him curl into himself out of the corner of his eye. Madara rolled so that he was sitting on top of Ginkaku and swung his hand down toward the man. Before he could make contact, he was thrown off his opponent and crashed to the ground. He rolled with the momentum and made it to his feet. He was already reaching into his holster as he was moving and had his hand on a few shuriken and pulled them out of the bag. He flung them forward, more as a distraction than anything else. As Ginkaku pulled out a kunai to deflect the projectiles. Madara had already twisted his hands together in signs and brought his hand to his mouth, breathing out. Fire formed in front of his face and shot forward into a huge fireball. He saw Ginkaku’s eyes widen in surprise, and the other man dove out of the way, but he was a little bit too late, and the fire singed his back, catching a few strands of his hair on fire.

He saw the man pulling out something from his back, but before he could grab it, there was a large pyre of wood surrounding the missing ninja. Hashirama had finally made it there. A moment later, he had to move out of the way of a kunai that had been aimed at the back of his head. Izuna, Toka, and the other brother all came out of the forest, exchanging kicks, blows, and jutsu.

Madara jumped over Tobirama’s prone form and picked a kunai out of his pouch, flinging it forward, between his target’s shoulder blades. Kinkaku moved out of the way at the last moment, but it was costly. Toka was already prepared, and had raised up the earth, wrapping it around one of his legs. Izuna jumped forward, roundhouse kicking the man in the face. He fell backward so roughly that the earth shattered and Madara saw his leg snap. He was certain that Kinkaku would have screamed out in agony if he would have still been conscious.

“Go back to the village, Yuki!” Hashirama called out to the other man. “Get a squad together that can take care of two prisoners.”

Madara heard the other man jump away and leave without a word. Hashirama rushed past Madara, who was too sore and tired to move another step. He watched as the other man looked over Tobirama, his hands glowing green as he worked. Madara almost absently noticed that Tobirama’s armor was nowhere to be found.

“I’m sorry, brother,” Izuna’s voice came out as choked as he stumbled toward Madara. He saw that the other man’s head was bleeding from a cut above his eyebrow. Other than that and a few bruises, however, he seemed to be unscathed, much to Madara’s relief. “We tried so hard to help him. We found them so early and we were trailing them, waiting for a good moment to ambush. We didn’t realize that they already knew that we were there. When they attacked, they went right after Toka and me, and at first, we thought that it was just the way that they were fighting. It took us a few minutes to realize that they were doing it on purpose. Tobirama was so caught up defending us that he was leaving himself open for attacks. They were after him the entire time. They must have realized how important he was, being the Hokage’s brother and all.” Izuna looked down at the ground, his hands clenched into tight fists. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t protect him, Madara.”

“You tried your best, and that’s all that matters,” Madara assured him. He looked away from Izuna and down at Hashirama, who was still working on the unconscious man. “How is he doing?”

“He’s going to be alright,” Hashirama reported, sounding exhausted, though he continued to work on. “We got here in time.”

That was all Madara needed to hear before his knees buckled and his eyes rolled into the back of his head, taking his entire consciousness into darkness.

~~~

Tobirama’s eyes fluttered open as he regained consciousness. His entire body was sore, but he could already tell that he no longer had any serious wounds. He groaned lowly as he pushed himself up so that he was sitting. He was in a hospital room, on a too-comfortable cot. The windows were open, reflecting on the white walls, making the entire room too bright.

“Your brother was here up until a couple of hours ago. I promised him that I would sit up here with you while he went into the office, if only for a little while,” Madara’s voice filled his ears. He sounded tired. Tobirama turned and saw that he was sitting in a chair across the room. His face was far from emotionless, but Tobirama was unable to tell what emotions were there.

Something important wasn’t clicking in Tobirama’s head. He was still too groggy to process much of anything, but he knew that the expression on Madara’s face should make him wary. “Thank you for sitting with me,” Tobirama finally replied, his voice raspy from disuse. “Would you mind telling me what happened? The last thing I remember is being choked.”

“Hashirama, a sensor from your clan and I came out as backup to help you and the others,” Madara reported, lowering his eyes to his hands, which were clasped together on his lap. “Izuna and Toka are both fine by the way. You did a great job shielding them.” Madara smiled as he looked up at him. “Thank you for watching out for my little brother.”

Tobirama eyes widened as something clicked together in his head. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer, but he had to ask anyway. “How…how did you guys know that we were in trouble?”

Madara’s entire body tensed as his smile slid off his face, and he quickly looked back down at his lap, refusing to so much as glance anywhere else. Silence ensued for what felt like an eternity. Tobirama thought that he wasn’t going to get any answer at all, but Madara surprised and finally spoke up.

“I was working late last night,” he murmured. His voice was so low that Tobirama almost didn’t hear him. “I felt pain in my hand and face, as though someone had just cut me with a shuriken or a kunai. I ignored that, but then I felt more pain from more serious injuries. I ran to get Hashirama and told him that you guys were in trouble and we came for you.”

Tobirama opened his mouth to reply, but Madara cut him off before he could say something. “I’ll go and let the doctor know that you’re awake. I have to get back to work, so I’ll send your brother down to you.”

“Madara,” Tobirama said as the other man practically flew to the other side of the room, “I think we need to tal—”

He was cut off by the door slamming shut behind the other man. Tobirama numbly leaned back in his bed until his back was resting against pillows again. He looked up at the ceiling, trying his best to feel indignant about the other ignoring him. Instead, he felt as though something deep inside of him—something that he hadn’t even known was there—was breaking. If nothing else, this entire mission, as short lived as it was, put a few things in perspective for him.

The first thing was that Madara knew that they were soulmates. He had probably known for as long as Tobirama had since that was the only time that one of them had been grievously injured until the night before. The second was that Madara wasn’t happy about this secret coming out. It was not like either of them could be upset about the other hiding the fact since they were both doing the same thing, so it had to be because Tobirama had found out that he was so upset. His third realization was that he was sad about it. This was unspoken rejection, of that Tobirama was certain, and he didn’t like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love drama as long as it's happening to someone else, and obviously this extends to fictional characters as well. I hope that you enjoyed! Feel free to let me know what you think.


	7. Confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not actually the biggest fan of this chapter. It's too choppy, but I feel as though it was necessary too. I hope that it's not too bad.

**Confrontation**

Madara hid himself in his office at the hokage tower. He knew that Hashirama had wanted to speak to him since he hadn’t had a chance to do so that morning, but Madara basically told him to screw off. He didn’t want to talk about anything to anyone, let alone speaking to Hashirama about his brother.

“I want you to know that you’re a total asshole,” Izuna’s voice hit his ears. Madara tiredly looked up and saw that Izuna was standing in his doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. There was a large bandage wrapped around the man’s forehead, but that didn’t take away from the severity of the glare.

“I just saved your life earlier,” Madara informed his tiredly. “Could you enlighten me about what I’ve done for that insult in the past few hours? If you can’t give me a good reason, then fuck off and go somewhere that someone actually wants you around.”

Izuna’s eyebrows rose up so far that they were hidden behind his hair. He let out a low whistle and shook his head. “What’s got your panties in a twist? You’re in an even worse mood than Tobirama!”

Madara flinched at that name and stood up from his desk as Izuna stepped into the room. “Don’t bother,” Madara snarled at him. “Turn around and get out. I’m not dealing with this right now!”

“I’m not leaving right now,” Izuna snapped back, his eyes turning red from some burst of emotion. His hands were clenched into fists, and Madara thought that he might actually swing on him. He and Izuna may have had spats every now and again, but they got along great in the grander schemes of things. Madara thought that he had been around twelve the last time that they had been in a brawl. That made him pause. His brother was really that angry with him?

Madara just sighed and backed up a little, going to the small sofa that was jammed into the side of his office and sat down on the cushions. He pinched the bridge of his nose and asked, “What is it that you want?”

“I came here because I was concerned,” Izuna informed him, crossing his arms over his chest. Madara looked up so that he was staring him in the face and his brother blinked, losing the Sharingan. “You and Tobirama were doing so _good!_ What’s more, he already knew that you guys were soulmates, and still wanted something to do with you. You literally just threw all of that away. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You didn’t hear his voice when he asked about how I knew about you guys being in trouble,” Madara responded defensively. “He might have known about us being soulmates, but that was enough to tell me that he has no interest in it at all. He was being cordial with me for the sake of the village, and that’s it. I’m not going to follow him around like some pathetic fool. I have too much pride for that, and you know it.”

“Do you think that I would be here, fussing at you, if I thought that you would only be going after something unobtainable?” Izuna asked him. “Tobirama might not show many emotions, but the poor man is _crushed_. He’s trying to recover from all those wounds that he got from protecting me and Toka, and he was just rejected by his own soulmate. He might not have told me that you rejected him, but it was obvious that you had just by the look on his face.”

There was a loud banging on his door. Hashirama rushed inside, his eyes watering. “Madara, I think we need to talk!”

Madara looked up at his best friend exasperatedly. Did he really need to have both of them jumping down his throat? “Not you too! What the hell do you want?” Madara snapped at him.

“My little brother is heartbroken!” Hashirama wailed. “You can’t do this to him!”

“I’m not doing anything!” Madara exclaimed, pushing himself to his feet. He was all too aware of how protective Hashirama was of his younger brother. If he was this desperate, he had a feeling that he was moments from being dragged against his will to the hospital by both of his intruders. “Soulmate or not, it’s not like we have some sort of spoken agreement going on. I don’t owe him anything, just like he doesn’t owe me anything either!”

“I don’t understand!” Hashirama cried. “Last night, you freaked out when he was attacked, and rushed out of the village just to make sure that he was alright. What happened?”

“I know what happened,” Izuna snapped, scowling at his brother disapprovingly. “He’s has the emotional capability of an infant. His secret was just outed, and he didn’t know how to handle it. So, instead of manning up and facing Tobirama head-on, he ran from him and hid here like the coward—”

Madara could only handle so much. Without his permission, his hands darted out and wrapped themselves around Izuna’s collar. “Keep this up, and I’m going to—”

“I’ll tell you what, Madara,” Izuna hissed, “if you can look me in the eye and tell me that you didn’t just run away from Tobirama because you didn’t know how to handle the situation and got scared, I’ll _let_ you beat the hell out of me. I won’t fight you back.”

“This is _not_ the way that this needs to be handled!” Hashirama snapped. He moved forward and snatched Izuna out of Madara’s grip, shoving him so that the Senju was standing in between both Uchiha brothers.

“The hell it’s not!” Izuna snapped, jabbing a finger at Madara from over Hashirama’s shoulder. “He needs to take responsibility for what he’s done!”

Madara backed away from both of them, feeling a bit faint as exhaustion mixed with so much stress started affecting his body. All he wanted to do was curl up in his bed and wait until this train wreck had been cleared away. Sadly, this was his train wreck, and he knew that it was his job to fix it. He just didn’t know how he was supposed to.

“Calm down!” Hashirama pleaded to Izuna, turning away from Madara to look at the youngest one in the room. “Shouting and scolding isn’t going to make anything better. We need to handle this like adults.”

Madara opened his mouth to inform them that the adult thing to do was mind their own damn business, but before he could get the words out of his mouth, an excruciating pain flared in his left ankle. It was so unexpected that he was unable to brace himself properly, and he went down, falling to his knees and catching himself with his hands before he could face-plant the carpeted floor.

He didn’t even think as he pushed himself up and rushed out of the room, passing both Izuna and Hashirama as he did so. That pain wasn’t his own. Tobirama had done something to hurt himself again. He pushed past a few people that were shuffling out in the hallway and rushed down the stairs, making it outside in less than a minute. He rushed even faster, jumping onto the nearest roofs as he dashed to the hospital. Thankfully, it wasn’t very far from the hokage tower, and he made it there in another two minutes. He ran inside and didn’t even bother acknowledging the people at the front desk as he ran toward the stairs. He took them two at a time to get to the fourth floor where he knew that Tobirama was resting.

He ignored the nurses at the circulation desk once again as he pushed through Tobirama’s door. The younger man was sitting on the floor, clutching at his left ankle, his back hunched over.

“What the hell do you think that you’re doing?” Madara snapped at him. He leaned down and snatched one of Tobirama’s hands away from his leg and knelt beside him, wrapping it firmly around his shoulders. Tobirama didn’t say anything as he leaned onto Madara and let the other man support most of his weight as they both slowly stood up. “Are you crazy, or stupid? You have no reason to be out of bed yet!” He helped Tobirama sit back on his bed.

Madara’s ankle was still throbbing horribly, and he knew that Tobirama’s was probably either badly sprained or broken. Madara looked down at him and saw that Tobirama was looking at his lap, his hands clasped together in front of him. Had Madara ever seen the other man look so meek? He felt a nauseating sensation in his gut as guilt flooded him.

“Tobirama?” Madara asked quietly, making sure that all the anger was out of his voice. The other man tensed, but he didn’t react otherwise. Madara almost thought that the younger hadn’t heard him. “Tobirama,” Madara repeated, “I’m trying to talk to you. Will you look at me?”

He didn’t move, so Madara just sighed and knelt in front of the younger so that he would have no choice but to look at him. Madara felt his heart clench as he looked at the other’s face. Tobirama’s eyebrows were pinched together and his lips were turned downward. His red eyes, which Madara had come to realize held most of the man’s emotions, were deadened. He had done this. He’d caused Tobirama this much pain. No wonder Izuna had been so angry and Hashirama so concerned.

“Why are you here, Madara?” Tobirama finally asked, shutting his eyes. He sounded tired and wounded.

“I’m here because you needed me,” Madara replied. “You were in pain, and…” he opened his mouth, wanting to properly articulate what he was feeling, but he couldn’t seem to get the words out. Damnit! Why was Hashirama able to talk about this kind of crap? He made it look so easy, but it was one of the hardest things that Madara had ever had to do. One more look at the expression Tobirama’s face was enough for him to suck it up, however. “And I don’t want you to hurt. I don’t like it. When I feel pain in my body that’s not my own, it scares me because I know that you’re the one hurting. I…I didn’t mean to do this. I didn’t want to hurt you, Tobi. I’m not good at this kind of stuff, and I don’t want to say the wrong thing and hurt you even more than I’ve already done. Can you tell me what you want me to say? What do you need to hear for me to wipe that look off your face?”

“I don’t want you to say anything,” Tobirama said. “It doesn’t matter anymore. You made your thoughts crystal clear this morning when you left. I don’t want you to force yourself to—”

“I panicked, alright,” Madara cut him off. He already felt his pride being snatched away as he stuttered out, “I’m sorry…I really fucked up, and I hurt you. I wasn’t rejecting you, I swear it. I just didn’t know what to do. I _still_ don’t know what to do.”

Before Tobirama could respond, the door to his hospital room swung open once again, admitting two idiots. Madara sighed tiredly as he heard Izuna and Hashirama’s concerned babbling, that immediately cut itself off, probably when they saw the position that the two were in.

“Ah,” Hashirama said, his voice coming out higher than normal. “Our apologies…we’ll just…um….”

“Go and get a doctor, you blithering idiot,” Madara snapped at his best friend without looking away from Tobirama. “Your brother hurt his ankle. Izuna, you will stay in here with Tobirama for the remainder of the day, at least until I get off work. He is not to get out of bed without help for any reason at all.”

He heard Hashirama scrambling out of the room. Izuna mumbled something about a drink and followed the other out quickly, shutting the door behind him. Madara bowed his head and let out a breathy laugh, shaking his head before he slowly looked back up at Tobirama. “I do have some important things that I have to get done by the end of today, so I can’t stay very long. We can finish talking when I get here tonight, okay? Just know that I’m sorry for panicking earlier.”

“I don’t expect anything out of you, Madara,” Tobirama said quietly. “I know that we’re soulmates, but that doesn’t have to mean anything. I don’t want to push ourselves into anything. I…I rather liked what we had before, and I just don’t want this to ruin anything.”

“I think that I like what we have too,” Madara agreed with a small smile, noting that Tobirama looked a lot less disheartened with Madara’s confession. “Nothing is going to change that we don’t want to change, alright?”

Tobirama nodded, a small smile twitching on his lips.

Madara pushed himself to his feet and said, “You mind telling me why you were trying to stand up in your condition?”

“I didn’t want to sit still,” Tobirama admitted. “I was upset, and I figured that walking around a little would make me feel a bit better. I didn’t know that my legs were so weak.”

“You lost a lot of blood last night,” Madara informed him. “It’s going to take a while to get yourself back to full strength. Don’t do anything like that again, alright?”

Tobirama nodded just as a knock on the door sounded. Madara rolled his eyes and moved back to answer it. Hashirama, Izuna, and a frazzled doctor were all standing outside. Madara moved to the side to let them in and waved at Tobirama before he walked out of the door, shutting it behind him.

Madara managed to get to one of the benches that lined the walls outside before he sat down, wincing as his ankle throbbed, like someone had set it. He was able to ignore that for a more important thought. Tobirama had been pouting for lack of a better word. Sure, it had been an extreme form of it that had left Madara feeling like shit, but he had been pouting all the same. He’d looked so cute that Madara hadn’t been able to stand it. He shut his eyes as resignation flooded his mind.

 _Well,_ he thought, _that’s it. I’m screwed._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you enjoyed! Feel free to let me know what you thought! The next chapter should be out soon.


	8. Crush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alternatively titled: "Two examples of how these idiots care about each other more than they want to admit and lie to themselves and everyone else about it."

**Crush**

Tobirama couldn’t help the smile that twitched on his lips as he stood in Madara’s doorway with a stack of papers in hand. Madara looked as though he was half asleep. His head was resting against his face as he looked down at his desk. He looked exhausted.

“Did you sleep at all last night, Uchiha?” Tobirama questioned as a way of announcing himself.

Madara jumped, his head snapping up as he looked around, clearly startled. His eyes locked on Tobirama, and he slumped forward again, as though saying _oh, it’s just you_. It probably would have been more insulting if Madara hadn’t been in such rough shape.

“No,” he groaned, sounding more than just a little pathetic. “I was up all night with your damn brother. He and Mito got into an argument, so he decided to come to my house last night.”

Tobirama was surprised that Hashirama had decided to bother someone other than him with his marital problems. He was glad about it, however. Even if Madara was his soulmate, better him than Tobirama. He didn’t know how bad his temper would be if he’d had to pull another all-nighter because of his idiotic brother.

Tobirama was silent as he walked around the desk so that he was standing beside Madara. The other man’s head slowly turned and followed his movements. He looked at Tobirama, as though he was in a trance. Tobirama gently sat his hand on his shoulder and said, “I don’t think you’re any good to anyone right now the way that you are right now.”

Madara shook his head, “I’m…” he trailed off as a large yawn overtook him. “I’m totally fine. It’s not that bad.”

“You look like a zombie,” Tobirama informed him.

The scowl that Madara’s face twisted into was priceless. Tobirama couldn’t help the smile that twitched onto his lips because of it. “You’re too kind,” Madara snapped, but there was no heat behind the words. “Honestly, Tobirama, I don’t know how your circle of friends doesn’t include every person in the village.”

“I said it because I care,” Tobirama informed him. “I didn’t mean for it to wound your fragile ego. Not to mention that you’re the one that is scheduled to go and talk to the students right before they get out of the academy. How well do you think that you’re going to take trying to speak to children in your current condition? I think for both your sake and the sake of the children you need to take a nap before this afternoon.”

“I don’t have time to take a nap right now,” Madara replied stubbornly.

“Really?” Tobirama asked, amused. “It looked as though you were taking one before I came in. If you’re going to go to sleep, you might as well sleep somewhere more comfortable.”

“I’m not going all the way home just to go to sleep,” Madara grumbled. “It would be completely pointless, and I’m sure that I wouldn’t wake up in time to go to the academy. Besides, I still have all of this paperwork to do.”

“Take a nap on the couch,” Tobirama suggested. “I’ve gotten caught up on my workload already this morning.” That might have been a bit of a lie, but Tobirama could afford to work a bit faster on his own work and get Madara's done too. “I’ll do yours while you sleep.”

“I can’t expect you to do that for me,” Madara insisted. “I know that we’re soulmates, but we’ve agreed that we’re not going to let that affect our decisions. You wouldn’t do that for anyone else here, and I’m not going to let you do that for me.”

“I’m not asking you for permission,” Tobirama informed him. He pulled Madara's chair back so that he was able to stand between him and his desk. He pushed Madara so that he was leaned against the back of his chair and was able to properly look at how serious Tobirama was. “Besides, I’m not doing this because we’re soulmates; I’m doing this because I want to.” That wasn’t a lie, he really did want to help Madara out in any way that he could. He couldn’t stand the thought of Madara being so putout. In the past year, Tobirama had become more and more protective over him. He’d had to stifle it down almost constantly for fear that he would scare Madara off. The man was emotionally stunted, so there was always a fear that something that Tobirama did would send him running like he did nearly a year ago when they had both unwillingly come clean about their fated bond.

Madara's eyebrows raised and Tobirama could see that he was trying his best to stand firm, but it wasn’t going to work. It was too tempting to nap after an all-nighter, and Tobirama was offering him a way to get one done. Tobirama watched at Madara brought his hand up to his mouth to cover up a large yawn. Madara slumped a little and Tobirama knew that he’d won.

“Fine,” The other man grumbled, “but I’m going to pay you back for this.”

Tobirama rolled his eyes at the assurance. He wanted to tell Madara that there was nothing to pay him back for, but he held his tongue. If doing something for Tobirama in return made Madara feel more confident about taking a nap, then so be it.

“Sounds good,” Tobirama replied, “why don’t you pick up the tab when we go to lunch again?”

“I can do that,” Madara nodded slowly as he pushed himself to his feet and skirted around Tobirama. He stopped and placed a hand on Tobirama’s shoulder and mumbled a quiet _thank you_ before he stumbled drunkenly to the couch. Tobirama watched him amusedly, making sure that he actually made it to the small piece of furniture. Once he saw that Madara was fully sprawled out on the cushions he sat down in Madara's chair and started looking over the stacks of documents that were spread out all over the desk. This was going to be tedious, he grimaced at the thought of it until he heard the soft snore that came from the couch. It was definitely worth it.

~~~

“You’re sooooo lucky that every Senju on the face of the earth is oblivious,” Izuna said casually as he settled himself onto Madara's couch with a rather large plate of Madara's food. Madara looked up from the book that he was reading long enough to glare at his brother for taking all his things without asking before he went back to the pages.

“Why am I lucky about that?” Madara questioned, not really paying attention, too caught up in the interesting novel that Hashirama had convinced him to borrow. It was starting to get really interesting, with the protagonist, a total annoying underdog, about to go against a powerful bad guy with his sensei and two teammates.

“You’re lucky because that it the only way that Tobirama hasn’t figured out that you’re completely in love with him,” Izuna continued before taking a large bite out of the leftover fish that Madara was planning on having for supper that night. “Honestly, big brother, could you be any more obvious about it? Those puppy-dog eyes that you give him all of the time is enough to make me nauseous.”

“You don’t look so nauseated right now,” Madara pointed out dryly. He supposed that he should be angry about Izuna saying that he was in love with Tobirama—which he _wasn’t—_ but Madara was trying to work on his temper. Hashirama informed him that there were only so many diplomates in the world that were going to willingly put up with his brash behavior, and they were quickly running out of them. So, instead of cursing at his younger brother like he wanted to, he simply said. “I’m not in love with Senju. We’re just friends, and I’m totally content with that. Quit trying to see something that isn’t there.”

“That’s really good,” Izuna nodded encouragingly, though Madara knew that tone too well. The little shit was up to something. “I’m glad that you’re just friends, because I was just about to tell you that there’s a ninja from the Inuzuka clan that has her eyes on Tobirama. I believe that they’re scheduled for a _private_ meeting tomorrow to discuss the inclusion of dogs at the academy.”

_Don’t fall for it,_ Madara coached himself, _so, what if they’re having a private meeting? I don’t care about that. We’re just friends…it doesn’t matter if I enjoy the way that Tobirama looks after sparring with all of that sweaty skin on display and flushed cheeks. I definitely don’t like when I manage to pin him down and he’s looking up at me with those hazy eyes…I don’t like him I am not in love with him. Do_ not _take Izuna’s bait!_

Despite all that pep talk, however, he found himself pathetically asking, “Private meeting?”

“Yeah,” Izuna said, looking over at Madara with wide, innocent eyes. It might have worked, but his smile was a bit too sharp to make the look believable. “It’s pretty controversial, I guess, and she doesn’t want anyone else around to sway Tobirama from her point. It makes sense I guess. Who cares if she has the hots for him? There are some soulmates that are only platonic, after all. I thought that it wasn’t the case with the two of you, but what do I know? It’s not like I haven’t been wrong before.” His voice was airy, as though he didn’t care one way or another, but Madara knew better. He was waiting for a reaction like he always was, and Madara wasn’t going to give him one…he _wasn’t!_

He stood up and said, “I’ll be back, Izuna,” as calmly as he could, as to not make him think anything of this. “I believe I forgot to discuss something with Hashirama while we were in the office earlier today.”

He was certain that he’d stopped Izuna from suspecting anything, but that entire hope was dashed when he heard his younger brother laughing loudly from his spot on the couch, the little prick. Madara was sure to slam the door loudly behind him as he stormed out of the house. Why was his brother such a brat? Wasn’t he too old for shit like this?

That didn’t matter, he figured. He had set out to do something and he’d already lost his dignity with Izuna. He supposed it was now worth seeing through to the end. He marched out of his sector, making sure to move quickly so that none of his clan members would stop him and try to strike up a conversation. He was a man on a mission.

 

It didn’t take him long to make it to Hashirama’s house—no, he hadn’t used up too much chakra to get there as soon as he could—and he wasted no time at all banging on the door. Mito, his harpy of a wife was the one that answered the door. She looked at him disapprovingly but sighed and let him inside all the same. “Where is your husband?” Madara asked her. He’d stopped trying to be falsely pleasant with her long ago, when he realized that there was probably nothing that he could do to win her favor.

“In his study,” she informed him. “He’s very busy right now, so if it’s not important, I’m going to have to ask you to come back some other time.”

“It is important Madara insisted. He didn’t bother asking permission to go back to the study. He simply walked away from her. He would probably hear about his lack of manners from either her or Tobirama later, but that didn’t matter to him. He was used to it anyway.

He didn’t bother knocking as he pushed the door to Hashirama’s study open and saw that the Hokage was indeed very busy…napping. Madara scowled and turned to see that Mito was making the same face behind him, shooting daggers at her husband.

“I thought that you were working, dear,” she said, her sweet tone sounding positively deadly.

Hashirama immediately shot up, as though she had yelled at him. His face drained of color and he laughed nervously. “Sorry, my love. I must have dozed off by accident. I didn’t sleep so well last night.”

“Well, I’ll leave the two of you alone,” she said as she turned around and walked down the hallway and out of sight. She truly was terrifying.

Hashirama looked over at Madara, his expression conveying that he hadn’t seen him when he’d woken up in a panic. “Oh, hello, Madara!” he exclaimed as Madara stepped into the office and shut the door behind him. “What can I do for you?”

“I believe that a privet meeting between Tobirama and the Inuzuka woman is a bad idea,” he said without preamble. Like normal, words gushed out of his mouth when he was emotionally distressed. “It’s a really sensitive matter that they’re going to be going over and I believe that more points of view should be present—”

“What are you talking about?” Hashirama cut him off. He immediately snatched a seemingly random sheet of paper off his desk and looked it over, his eyes scanning the front before they scanned the back of it. “Tobirama has no meeting scheduled for tomorrow.”

“Are you sure?” Madara demanded. “Izuna just told me….” He trailed off as realization struck him like a hard slap to the face that he really had walked right into that little shit’s trap. He stiffened and took a slow step back. “I have to go,” Madara said calmly. “My brother is currently at my house, eating all of my food and I need to go and kill him.”

He turned around and walked out of the room. As he closed the door behind him, he heard Hashirama cheerily send him off. “Have fun!”

Don’t worry, Hashirama. Murdering Izuna was going to be fun indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed! The next chapter should be up soon! Feel free to let me know what you think!


	9. Caving to the Inevitable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm fairly certain that this is a chapter that you've all been waiting for! I hope you enjoy.

Madara hated his younger brother for many things, but this one had to take first place ‘ _I will never forgive him for this!’_ list. Right above that time that he had doctored his shampoo with bright blue hair dye while they were teenagers. Sure, this one might not have been completely intentional, but it was still horrible all the same. Though, knowing Izuna, it was intentional and there was no way for Madara to prove it.

Over a month ago, Izuna had told him about that fictional Inuzuka woman with eyes for Tobirama. Sure, that woman had been fake, but now Madara's eyes had opened. There were a _lot_ of people around the village that seemed to have eyes for Tobirama. Sure, he was a handsome man, but there were plenty of other men around the village that those lecherous eyes could roam over. Tobirama’s looks were exotic, for lack of a better word, and Madara figured that not many people would have appreciation of them since they were so different from what most considered classically handsome.

Madara was becoming paranoid. It had started to make him ask himself questions that he’d _never_ wanted to ask. The one that had constantly been on the forefront of his mind was _Why the hell do I even care?_ Even from the beginning, he’d already known the answer to that question, but had stubbornly ignored it. Sadly, after over thirty days of continuous hell, being constantly cranky and glaring at everyone that let their gazes linger on Tobirama for too long—and, no, lingering glances were _never_ innocent—he was starting to crack.

His breaking point was exactly one month and one week after Izuna had pulled that stupid little prank, and it hadn’t been for the reason that he was expecting.

He and Tobirama were out at the ramen joint yet again. It was a nice day out, spring was just starting to rear its head, so the days were no longer too cold for them to sit outside. It made it a great day for an outing. Sadly, however, everyone else seemed to think so too. He heard a low giggle from his left and saw that a group of three giggling civilian women were standing behind Tobirama in the background. They were all looking at him appreciatively and had smirks on their faces. Madara scowled at him, his expression fierce enough to wipe the smiles off their faces. They quickly scampered off, probably to gawk at some other poor soul.

“Is there something wrong, Madara?” Tobirama inquired as he brought up noodles to take a bite. He chewed and swallowed them and Madara immediately looked back down at his own bowl, hating that he’d been caught glaring. “You’ve had an uncomfortable look on your face since we’ve been out for lunch.”

“I’m fine,” Madara insisted. He clammed up after that, knowing that he had that horrible habit of spewing out words that were better kept silent when he spoke too much.

He felt the other man’s gaze on him. He didn’t want to look, but it was as though he was helpless to refuse the command. His head slowly turned to the side so that he could look at Tobirama. His soulmate’s red eyes were narrowed in distrust and his lips were pursed ever so slightly. All his expressions were understated, but Madara had become quite good at reading them accurately.  This expression clearly conveyed that he hadn’t believed a word that had come out of Madara's mouth.

“What?” Madara asked curtly, immediately feeling defensive.

He didn’t know what he was expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a cool hand on his already flushing forehead. “You’re warm,” Tobirama mused quietly. His eyes started to soften as he became concerned. “Why don’t you go home? There’s no reason for you to stay at work when you’re not well.”

“We’re not doing this again,” Madara told him. His voice sounded gentler than he had intended, much to his mortification. Far from being discouraged by it, Tobirama’s lips quirked up into a soft smile. It was a look that caused his heart to begin stuttering in a way that couldn’t be healthy. “You’ve already done this to me once.”

“That was nearly two months ago,” Tobirama protested, removing his hand from his forehead. “You’re allowed to have more than one sick day a year, you know?”

“Really?” Madara questioned, forgetting his discomfort. Talking to Tobirama made him more comfortable than most things did these days. “Then could you explain to me why you came to the office with a migraine a couple of weeks ago? You looked as though you were going to faint at any minute, and refused to go home, insisting that you were too busy to take that much time off.”

“I was,” Tobirama insisted.

“No,” Madara replied. “You were being stubborn. We’re both busy, and if you’re not allowed to take any days off, then I’m not allowed to either. Besides, Tobirama, I’m feeling _fine_ , there’s no need to be concerned.”

Much to Madara's surprise and pleasure, Tobirama looked away, his cheeks turning a light shade of pink. It was nice to know that Tobirama wasn’t great at the whole feelings thing either. From what he had heard from Hashirama, their upbringing had been similar. Emotions had been something that would get you beaten by allies and killed by enemies. It was hard to go against those violent teachings, even after this many years of peace.

It wasn’t very often that he saw Tobirama so unsettled and it was amusing every rare time it happened. He schooled his features into an innocent mask and brought his hand up to press up against his forehead. Tobirama’s skin was warm, and it was as though Madara could feel more heat pooling by the heartbeat that his hand stayed on Tobirama’s skin.

“What are you doing, Madara?” Tobirama questioned, unable to hide the tremor to the words.

“I noticed that you were getting flushed,” Madara replied, his voice completely even. “I figured that you might be running a temperature.”

“I’m fine,” Tobirama replied stiffly. Madara caught the hint and removed his hand. A small smile graced Tobirama’s face yet again. “Quit trying to change the subject. We were talking about you being sick, remember?”

“But I’m not sick,” Madara insisted, not bothering to fight the smile that curled on his face. “It looks like you might be running a temperature. Maybe it’s making you see things.”

They both looked at each other, smiling for a few moments before Madara sighed and looked away. “We should probably get going,” he said. “Our lunch hour is almost up.”

“Such a shame,” Tobirama remarked. “Its such a beautiful day. You think that Hashirama would protest if I suggest moving our work outside? I bet the park would be a nice spot to do paperwork.”

“He’d probably jump at the idea,” Madara replied. He pulled his wallet out to pay, but Tobirama waved him off and paid for the meal. “The only problem with that would be keeping him focused while we’re outside.”

“I never said that he would go with us,” Tobirama said with a smirk. “I’m sure that we could have plenty of fun and relaxation without him.”

Madara snorted but nodded his head all the same. It was true. “I doubt that you’re actually that heartless to deny your brother that freedom while you’re out basking in it.”

Tobirama’s smirk sharpened even more turning into a wicked smile. “I will have you know that I’m plenty heartless when the occasion calls for it.”

Madara knew that was true, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment by agreeing with him. He just laughed, wanting to keep the mood as light as it had been since they’d gone out for lunch.

“Excuse me!” there was an uncertain squeak behind Madara and both men turned around. There was a flushing civilian woman standing behind them, wringing her hands together in front of her nervously. There were three other young women standing maybe ten feet away, looking over intently, though they were trying to look as though they weren’t.

“Yes?” Madara asked, since he was the one that she was looking at. She reminded Madara of a mouse. She was tiny with dull brown hair, but she had very pretty brown eyes.

“I…I was wondering if you would like to go out to coffee some time, Madara-Sama,” she managed to force out, her voice very high. “I really would love to get to know you a bit better.”

Madara's eyes bugged out at the totally unexpected question. No wonder the woman had looked so scared. She was probably afraid that Madara was going to kill her for the question alone. He wasn’t renown for his gentleness, after all.

“I….” Madara froze after that single word, unsure of what to do. Was he supposed to refuse, or was he supposed to accept?

“He can’t,” Tobirama said, his voice coming out icy. “He’s already got someone.”

The woman’s entire face flushed, and she squeaked something that sounded like an apology—Madara wasn’t entirely sure if that’s what it was—before she turned around and scurried back to her friends. Madara imagined that she was crying. Tobirama was downright frightening when he was upset, and that tone was exactly how Tobirama sounded when he was angry about something.

“Um….” Madara trailed off, still in shock. He looked at his friend blankly, and Tobirama seemed to understand that nothing had caught up with Madara yet. The younger just sighed and shook his head at him.

“Let’s go, you idiot,” Tobirama muttered, sounding more fond than normal. Madara numbly wondered what he had done to deserve that. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

 

Tobirama worked diligently on the last of his paperwork. He was actually going to finish early, a miracle that he hadn’t seen in over two months. That would probably make him feel a lot better if his mind wasn’t so focused on Madara's reaction of that woman asking him out to drinks earlier. He had been in a debilitating shock, and Tobirama wasn’t certain of the cause of the reaction. Had it been because he had been elated about the offer, or had he just been shocked, but not interested? He hadn’t spoken up, and he hadn’t done his normal routine when things made him emotional in any sense, which was basically vomiting out every word that came to his head.

Tobirama didn’t know what Madara was thinking, and that bothered him a lot. Madara hadn’t mentioned anything about romantic interest in anyone. Sure, Tobirama hadn’t expected a proclamation of love, but he had thought that maybe they were moving toward something more romantic than platonic.

He distractedly signed his name on a paper that he hadn’t even read over. Hopefully it was for something that he would approve of when he was in a better state of mind to actually care.

 _He’s been frowning more than normal for him over the past month,_ Tobirama mused as he pushed the paper into the _finished_ stack. _Is it because he’s getting sick of my company? Have we been around each other too much?_ The last thing that Tobirama wanted was to push him away. Sure, he had thought that his life would be perfectly fine without his soulmate in it before, but Tobirama could scarcely think about going more than a week without seeing him, and that was due to missions. If Madara was in the village, then they saw each other daily, if not for lunch then for some sort of break while they were working or training on their days off. It couldn’t be that Madara was getting sick of his company, however, because the Uchiha sought him out as often as Tobirama looked for Madara.

If that was the case, however, then what was going on? He shook his head, trying to clear the thoughts from it. It wasn’t working, however. His concentration was refusing to come back. _I can’t do this anymore_ , Tobirama thought resignedly. _I need some answers._

 

Work was slowing down for the shinobi. Madara didn’t know why, but he certainly wasn’t complaining. It made his job a lot easier, and his paperwork for the day was down by half. It would be nice to get off on time, or even earlier…too bad Madara was going to be doomed to staying late anyway. He was distracted, and he couldn’t pinpoint why. That didn’t mean that his brain was practically rattling inside of his head, trying to sort through his jumbled, confused mind.

His conscience was telling him to focus more closely on what Tobirama had said and how he had said it. He knew that was where all this inner turmoil was coming from. He was actually quite proud of himself for being able to identify the source of his issues, even if he couldn’t understand for the life of him why it was so damn important. He wanted to go to Hashirama and ask him about his brother. He was certain that the other man would probably have the answer that he was seeking, but there was a part of him that was completely against that route. He had a feeling that the other man wouldn’t leave the subject alone once Madara told him what had happened.

His own brother was definitely out too; Izuna was too much of a little shit to confide in anymore. He always managed to twist things in a way that left Madara feeling the psychological after effects for months. He had no idea when his brother had become so manipulating. It was probably a side-effect of being around Tobirama for so long. The younger man was the only person that he knew that was better with psychological warfare than Izuna.

There was a low knock on his door and when he looked up, he saw that Tobirama was leaning against his doorway with his arms crossed over his chest. Madara smiled as he saw his visitor, and Tobirama took that as an invitation inside. He walked into the room and quietly shut the door behind him. He expected Tobirama to take a seat, but he simply stayed on his feet.

“Is everything alright?” Madara asked him. “What can I help you with? Is Hashirama trying to shove off more of his work onto you again?”

“No,” Tobirama said immediately. “This doesn’t have anything to do with work. I just need to talk with you.”

Madara raised an eyebrow at this, curious. Tobirama was very professional. He never did anything personal during work hours. For something this rare to happen, it must be important.

“Okay,” Madara said, pushing his chair back a little bit from the desk and stood up as well. He walked from around the desk so that they were closer to each other. “What is this about? Is everything alright?”

“Nothing’s alright,” Tobirama admitted, his voice quieter than normal. He sounded exasperated. “I’ve been so patient Madara, but I can’t take this anymore.” He wasn’t yelling, but he might as well have been from his tone. He didn’t sound upset per say, but he did sound agitated.

“What are you talking about?” Madara inquired, unsure of where this conversation was turning. Had Madara done something wrong without realizing it? It definitely wouldn’t be the first time, but he felt as though it wasn’t anything like that. There was something that he wasn’t getting.

“I’m talking about us,” Tobirama said. His face was a mask, still almost completely expressionless, but Madara could tell that the other man was uncomfortable. The skin around his mouth was tight and the corners of his lips were pointed down a few more degrees than normal.

“What about us?” Madara asked. He knew he probably sounded like an oblivious idiot, but he preferred to go that route than rely on his intuition in these types of cases. Having Tobirama spell out what was wrong with him was the surest route to resolving whatever it was.

“What are we?!” his voice finally raised from the calm tone that it had been before then. The frustration was winning over his need to keep cool and collected. “I can’t read you with this because you’re such a damn idiot with anything remotely emotional!”

“We’re soulmates the last time that I checked,” Madara replied slowly. Sure, the idiot remark was a bit offensive, but he’d been called a lot worse throughout his life by plenty of people, Tobirama included, and it was easily ignored. Anyways, the longer this conversation went on, the more idiotic he was beginning to feel.

“This is exactly what I mean,” Tobirama sighed, his face scrunched up as he looked at the ceiling, as though he were praying for patience from a higher power.  “You’re really not going to get this until I spell it out for you,” he groaned. Madara watched in fascination as Tobirama’s face reddened. Madara halfway expected Tobirama to attempt to avoid eye-contact, but he knew the other man too well. He was much too proud to look away from his issues. It was one of the reasons why Madara respected him so much.

“Get what, Tobirama?” Madara demanded. “You’re not being clear!”

“I wouldn’t have to be anymore clear to anyone else!” Tobirama snapped at him, his temper flaring. The other man closed his eyes and took a deep breath, his muscles visibly relaxing. He slowly opened his eye lids, revealing his pretty red irises. He looked calmer and more resigned to whatever it was that he was about to do.

Madara looked at him wearily, worried about whatever that was. He had never known Tobirama to be so irritable. He hoped that they could get this resolved quickly so that he would go back to being the man that Madara had grown to like. He swore to himself that he would never do whatever it was that he’d done to make Tobirama feel like this again. It was a bit scary if Madara was being honest with himself.

“I’m attracted to you, you moron,” Tobirama finally said, his voice coming out too tired to be biting. “I like you as more than a friend, and I would very much like to pursue a more romantic relationship.”

Those two sentences allowed everything to click together in his brain. Everything was starting to make sense again. _That’s_ what his brain was trying to tell him. Tobirama had been upset by the woman asking Madara out. He’d gotten jealous.

Sadly, the realization of what had been happening hadn’t made the admission any less shocking. “W-wha-what?!” Madara spluttered right before his jaw dropped. His heart was racing as heat flowed into his face, probably turning it around the same shade as his armor.

Tobirama stiffened and took a step away from him. Madara saw hurt crawl onto his face for a fleeting moment before it was gone. “I…I understand,” Tobirama said, his voice stiff, but even he wasn’t good enough to hide the pain. “I won’t bring it up again.”

Madara's eyes widened and he shook his head as his mind caught back up with the present. This was not the right time to freeze up. He could save the internal meltdown for later and rebuild his entire mental structure as soon as he was at home. Tobirama turned to leave, but Madara's hand shot out and grabbed his forearm before he could.

“No!” he shouted. In a much quieter voice he forced out, “Don’t…don’t…don’t leave.”

“Don’t spare my feelings if you’re not interested,” Tobirama commanded, though his voice was quiet. Madara heard a sliver of hope there as well and sagged in relief of that sound alone.

“I’m not good with feelings,” Madara finally admitted. “You know that. You said it yourself a few minutes ago. I was just caught off guard. I do like you, Tobirama. I just don’t know how to categorize it. The thought of you being with someone else pisses me off and…” he trailed off, his instincts telling him to keep the feelings to himself. It was dangerous to say these things aloud. They could be used against him so easily. He knew that he didn’t have a choice in it, however. Tobirama was worth the risk, that much he knew. He deserved this part of Madara, a part that he’d never given anyone else. He deserved his trust, something that he had proved over and over again, and Madara was going to give it to him, no matter how much it terrified him.

“The thought of you being with someone else pisses me off and it hurts,” he finished. “You make me very happy and losing you in any capacity would probably cause me permanent emotional damage. I would never be the same. I’ve gotten to the point where I think I might need you in my life.”

Tobirama’s posture straightened and he turned around to look at Madara, his eyes widened. There was a smile on his lips. It wasn’t the small one that he was used to seeing either. This one was a full smile, twisting Tobirama’s face into the most beautiful expression that he’d ever seen. Madara's breath caught in his throat as he looked, completely enamored. He was certain that he could stand there all day and just look at that smile and still not be tired of seeing it.

He saw Tobirama’s arms reach out toward him, and his view suddenly changed from Tobirama’s face to the side of his neck as he was pulled into a warm and comforting hug. Madara's arms automatically went around Tobirama, reciprocating the action. “You’re beautiful,” Madara blurted out. He didn’t have it in him to be embarrassed by the words either because they were an irrefutable fact. That was it for him he was irrevocably committed to this man, and there was no turning back, not that he ever wanted to go back to the way things were.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope that I didn't disappoint. It was really fun to write this one, and I love an obtuse Madara, so that's exactly how he was in this. The next chapter should be out soon! Feel free to let me know what you think!


	10. Relationship

Even after a couple of weeks after acknowledging their attraction to one another, everything still felt completely new, as though they had only been romantically involved for a day at the most. Tobirama’s face heated whenever he saw Madara, whether it was at the office or he was out around town.

It might have been because of the uncharacteristically sweet words that had tumbled out of Madara's mouth the day that they had come to terms with what they were two weeks ago. _He needs me,_ Tobirama thought, a warm and fuzzy feeling rolling through his stomach. It was an unfamiliar sensation and had made him uncomfortable before, but he was starting to get used to it and found that he rather liked the way it felt.

“What’s got you in such a good mood?” Hashirama, of all people asked, snatching Tobirama out of his own head. If his oblivious brother had picked up on his elated mood, he must have really been acting obvious.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Tobirama replied flatly. He and his brother were walking down the street of the market. It was the weekend, and Hashirama had gotten his duties completed early and had insisted that they set aside some time for sibling bonding. Tobirama had informed him that he needed to go shopping, so they went out together.

“Your face is brighter,” Hashirama explained, as though it was going to make things clearer.

Tobirama turned to look at him quizzically. That was a new description that he hadn’t heard before. Not from Madara, nor from Izuna, both brothers had a knack for coming up with some weird phrases.

“Maybe I didn’t say that right,” Hashirama mused, pursing his lips as he contemplated a different phrasing. He straightened up, a smile stretching across his mouth as he snapped his fingers together. “Ah, it’s your _eyes_ more specifically! They’re not narrowed, as though you’re trying to think through a too-complicated problem that has eluded you. That’s normally what you look like anymore. It’s like you have everything figured out, and you’re perfectly content. So, what was it? Did you figure out an anti-aging jutsu?”

“Brother,” Tobirama said tiredly, “we’ve already been through this before. I’m not attempting to stop death, so no, I have not discovered an anti-aging jutsu, or any other jutsu for that matter.”

“Then what is it?” Hashirama questioned, not bothering to act as though he was bothered in the least by the fact that he was being so pushy. Well, it was Hashirama, after all. It’s not as though he could expect better of his brother, even if he was the Hokage.

“It’s nothing,” Tobirama replied, rolling his eyes. “Is it illegal for me to be in a good mood? Maybe I just slept really well last night.”

He and Madara hadn’t told anyone about their budding relationship, figuring that they should try it out first, and see how they liked it before going any further. It might not have been all that long, but Tobirama was already certain that he liked this new step, and had no problem informing his brother about it. It’s not as though Hashirama would have a problem with it. His brother might not have said it in so many words, but he had been waiting years for them to get together, and he would be elated to know that it had happened.

“Hey, guys!” Izuna’s voice carried through the crowd almost effortlessly. He, like most Uchiha’s, could be very loud when the occasion called for it. Both he and Hashirama paused and turned around. The younger Uchiha brother was walking quickly toward them, moving past groups of civilians that had stopped in the middle of the street to speak.

“Hey, Izuna,” Hashirama said cheerily, waving at him, a bag of fruits swinging in the air in his hand. “What’s up?”

“I was actually on my way to a date,” Izuna admitted.

“Then why are you stopping to talk to us?” Tobirama asked. It wasn’t as though they didn’t see each other all the time anyway. He figured that Izuna would be more concerned about wooing his latest conquest.

“She, uh…well, she caught me staring at someone else and got pissed,” Izuna sighed, smiling sheepishly. He rubbed the back of his head and shrugged in a _what can you do?_ sort of way. Tobirama had a few suggestions but decided to keep them to himself. “She dumped me and ran home.” Tobirama had a feeling that Izuna was keeping out a few details that probably involved quite a bit of cursing.

“Who were you staring at?” Hashirama asked, prying into other’s businesses, as always.

“Not important,” Izuna said quickly, turning to look directly at Tobirama. “Big brother is looking for you. He said something about needing to give you something. You might want to stop by his house after you finish shopping.”

Tobirama frowned at this. Sure, he caught on to the fact that Izuna was trying to change the subject off the other woman that he was looking at, meaning that it was obviously someone that both he and Hashirama knew, but he was intrigued by what Madara could want. Normally, he would just wait until they were back at work to give Tobirama things that he needed. Whatever it was apparently couldn’t wait. It must be important. He mentally shrugged it off for the time being. He would find out soon enough.

“Don’t change the subject, Izuna,” Tobirama said, the corner of his lip twitching upward at the thought of the other man wanting to keep the woman’s identity a secret. He wasn’t normally so privet about his targets—sadly, yes, this is the proper wording for what the women normally were—and the very action made Tobirama suspicious. “Who is she?”

“Who said that it’s a she?” Izuna demanded, crossing his arms over his chest.

“We didn’t mean to be presumptuous!” Hashirama cried out waving his arms around emphatically. “Of course, I don’t care if it’s a man or a woman as long as you’re happy, and you both—”

“Don’t panic, fool,” Tobirama told his brother, “of course, it’s a woman. Izuna has never expressed any interest in men before and has turned down countless offers from different men around the village, some of them the most desirable and attractive that Konoha has to offer. So, Izuna…who is _she_ , and why are you being so secretive about it?”

Izuna looked from side to side before he took a casual step back. “You know what,” he said, “I think that I left a couple of kunai back at the guard post. I really should go and get them before they disappear. They’re really not that cheap to replace, and all that.”

Before Tobirama could call him out on the painfully obvious bullshit that he had just spewed, Izuna turned around and rushed off, getting lost in the crowd quickly.

“Huh,” Hashirama said, “I hope that his weapons are still there.”

Tobirama closed his eyes and shook his head, wondering how his brother could be so naïve. “I’m sure that all of his weapons are perfectly safe,” Tobirama said dryly, not bothering to inform his brother that Izuna was just hiding something. “Come on, let’s finish this up so I can get to Madara's and get back home.” He was planning on kicking back and relaxing for a while, maybe working on a few of his more neglected experiments. It was going to be a good day.

 

They finished shopping quickly afterward. Hashirama offered to go with him to Madara's house, but Tobirama waved down the offer. He told Hashirama to go on home to his wife and surprise her. Tobirama was certain that the redhead would be delighted. They parted ways at the market, and Tobirama started his trek to the Uchiha compound by himself. It was a quick trip, only taking a few minutes at the civilian pace that he was keeping.

He nodded to a few of the Uchiha’s that he was more familiar with and kept going, pausing to wave at young Kagami before walking up the porch to Madara's house and knocking on the door. He had a small house that Tobirama had only visited a couple of times, none of which had been when they had been on good terms. It was nice, and all that Madara needed seeing as he was living alone.

It didn’t take long for Madara to answer the door. His eyebrows raised as he spotted Tobirama, who frowned at his reaction. “Izuna told me that you were looking for me. He said to come over and that you had something for me.”

“Yeah,” Madara said quickly, “I’m sorry, I just wasn’t expecting you this early. I figured that I would have to go out and find you myself since Izuna has that date.”

“Had,” Tobirama corrected him as Madara moved back into his house, making a sweeping motion for Tobirama to follow him. “He blew it before it even started from what I understand.”

Madara snorted at his brother’s expense and shook his head as he shut the door behind Tobirama. “That sounds about right. He’s got worse luck in the romance department than anyone else that I know.”

“I’m sure that it’ll change eventually,” Tobirama assured him. He knew that Madara adored children, even if he acted like he didn’t, and wanted nieces and nephews to spoil in the future. That was something only Hashirama and Izuna could do for him. “He’ll find the right one.”

As Tobirama said those words, both he and Madara made eye contact. _Like I did,_ he couldn’t help but think, and he had a feeling that the same thought was going through Madara's mind. A moment later, Tobirama felt Madara's arms around him and he was pulled into a hug. He didn’t fight the smile that curled onto his face as he closed his eyes and lowered his head so that it was nestled against Madara's hair. This was really nice. He had never been one for touch, but he had no problem hugging Madara. It was warm and comforting.

“I’m glad that you came by,” Madara murmured almost too quietly for Tobirama to hear. He had noticed that Madara had been conveying emotions and feelings much more easily since they had started this thing between them. Tobirama found that he liked that a lot. He no longer had to guess at what Madara was thinking or feeling. He just informed Tobirama of it as though it was the most normal thing in the world.

“I am too,” Tobirama admitted, and he meant it. If the only thing that he got out of this visit was this hug, then it wasn’t a wasted trip. They stayed in their embrace for a few lingering moments before they slowly pulled away from each other. “What was it that you had to give me?”

“I lied to Izuna,” Madara said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in the same manner than his younger brother did. “I wanted to ask you here for dinner. We haven’t had a proper date yet, and I figured that it was about time that we did.”

Tobirama felt his eyes widen fractionally, but he bit back the rest of his surprise. That wasn’t what he had been expecting at all. His lips curled into a small smile a moment later and he smile. “I’d love to have dinner with you. Would you mind if I put these in your fridge, however?” Tobirama inquired, gesturing to the bags that he still had in one hand.

“Of course not,” Madara replied, walking toward the small kitchen that was on the other side of the living room, past a tiny dining area. “Feel free to make yourself at home. It’s still a few hours from dinner time, however, so did you have anything that you wanted to do with the day?”

Sure, he’d had plans before, but this sounded a lot more appealing. “No,” Tobirama informed him. “There was nothing else I wanted to do. Would you mind me keeping you company until dinner?”

“I’d like that a lot,” Madara said.

~~~

The entire afternoon was very nice. Madara was totally relaxed and he hadn’t so much as spluttered once. They really hadn’t spoken much, but the silence had been extremely companionable as they worked on separate tasks. They were on Madara's sofa. Madara was at the end of the couch, leaned back with his nose shoved into a book and Tobirama said next to him. He had asked to use some parchment to work out a few kinks in a jutsu that he had been brainstorming for the past few months. Tobirama halfway expected them to continue doing this until late in the night. There seemed to be nothing rushed or uneasy about the entire situation. It felt natural, as though Tobirama had been around Madara his entire life.

He was surprised when he heard Madara quietly shut his book. “We still have a little while before I need to start cooking,” Madara admitted. “I just want to ask you something, and once we speak about it, I’ll begin. Could you take a break from that for a few minutes…that’s if you’re not in the middle of an idea, of course.”

Tobirama sat down his brush on a spare sheet of parchment so that ink wouldn’t get everywhere, not taking his eyes off Madara as he did so. “I’m not,” he said. “What was it that you wanted to talk about?”

“I’m incredibly happy with you,” Madara started out. His voice was calm and collected, as though he had actually thought about saying these words, not just accidentally blurted them out. This made Tobirama very pleased. “I’ve never felt like this before. I know that we’ve only been seeing each other for a few weeks, and this is only our first official date, but I feel as though we’ve been doing this a lot longer.”

“That’s because we have,” Tobirama informed him. “We might not have had romantic intentions at the time, but we’ve gone out to eat together, and spent time together like we do now. Nothing has really changed. Are you alright with that? Did you want to try doing something differently?”

“No!” Madara said quickly, his eyes widening. “I didn’t mean that it was a bad thing, quite the opposite, actually. It feels so natural, and that’s what I’ve always wanted from a relationship from someone. I was trying to get at the fact that I feel as though this is going to be for the long haul. I don’t plan on going anywhere, and I have no interest in anyone else at all, and I don’t think that I ever will, and hopefully you feel the same way. Would you be alright with letting Izuna and Hashirama, at the very least, know? I feel as though we’re running around and hiding this from them. I don’t want to feel like that. I’m proud to be with you, and I’d very much like to be able to share that with my family.”

Tobirama straightened up and turned so that he was settled sideways on the couch and could look at Madara more fully. “I have no problem with that at all,” Tobirama murmured. “I’m happy with you too, happier than I’ve been my entire life. I’d like Hashirama and Izuna to both know about it.”

Madara smiled at him and brought his hand over, covering Tobirama’s with his slightly larger one. “Thank you.” He leaned forward, and said, “Make yourself comfortable and keep working if you’d like. I’m going to start making supper.”

Making a split-second decision, Tobirama brought his arm out and pushed against his chest. Madara stopped moving forward and settled back down on the couch again. He looked at Tobirama with a confused frown. “Is there something else?” Madara inquired.

“Yes, actually,” Tobirama said. “I…I’d really like to try something.” Every time that Madara said something thoughtful to Tobirama, it put warmth in his gut and he found himself getting urges that he’d never had before.

“What?” Madara asked, completely oblivious to Tobirama’s embarrassment. _Fuck it,_ Tobirama thought, _my soulmate’s an idiot, but he’s my idiot._ Instead of telling Madara what his intentions were, he simply put his mouth to better use by grabbing the front of Madara's shirt and pulling him closer so that Tobirama could slot his lips over the other man’s.

He was fairly certain that Madara squeaked almost immediately after, but Tobirama couldn’t find it in himself to care about that in the heat of the moment. He would have to remember it later so that he could tease the other man. Instead, he found himself sinking into the startled embrace of his soulmate, enjoying the pleasant warmth that surrounded him.

He pulled away, being sure to keep the kiss chaste. He couldn’t get very far, however. Madara had his arm around the middle of his back, so Tobirama could only move back enough for their foreheads to press together.

“Where do you think that you’re going?” Madara whispered to him before the other’s mouth was on his again. This kiss was much less chaste, and Tobirama could practically _taste_ the need pouring off his companion. Apparently, he hadn’t been the only one holding back for the sake of taking things slow. He felt a hand in his hair, at the base of his skull. It was wrapped tightly around his strands, the fingers pulling with enough force for Tobirama to gasp with pleasure. He shuddered at the sensation and practically melted when he felt Madara's tongue slip inside of his mouth and brush against his own.

Tobirama’s fingers tightened on the other man’s shirt and he leaned back, taking Madara with him so that they were both sprawled on the couch. It was awkward for a moment as they both shifted around to get comfortable, but they never separated even though it would have made things easier.

Madara released Tobirama’s mouth and began peppering very nice and very distracting kisses across his jaw. “I’m supposed to be cooking,” he breathed before nipping lightly on the lobe of Tobirama’s ear.

Tobirama bit his lip, his eyes rolling in the back of his head as a he held back a groan. Both of his hands immediately moved behind Madara. One wrapped its fingers into his long, thick hair, and his other arm curled around Madara’s waist, pulling them even closer together. “If you even think about getting up right now, I’ll stab you with a kunai.”

Madara chuckled, and Tobirama felt the vibrations in his own chest and Madara brought his head back up, a sly smile curled on his face as he looked down at Tobirama adoringly. “You wouldn’t do that,” Madara informed him as he lowered himself again, sloppily meshing their lips together for a few moments before he pulled away.

“Why wouldn’t I?” Tobirama asked as he pulled him back in for another kiss, this one much lengthier. It felt so good that Tobirama felt his toes curl and relished in the heat that was rushing through his body. He felt as though his veins were on fire. It was exhilarating.

“It’d hurt you too,” Madara said, smiling yet again. “Seems like I’ve found a way to stop you from thinking so hard.”

“Then get back to work. I don’t want a single thought in my head,” Tobirama commanded, tightening his hold on Madara's waist as Madara tightened his grip in Tobirama’s hair. He rose his head up to meet Madara for the next kiss. The arm that was wrapped around Madara’s waist loosened its grip as Tobirama’s hand moved down the strong cloth-covered plane of muscles and decided that it wanted to explore more closely. He felt the hem of Madara's shirt and immediately slid his hand inside, moving back up so that he was able to feel the too-hot skin against his palm. It was hard and smooth in some areas, but a good amount of the flesh that he encountered was raised. So much scar tissue. Tobirama would have to look at it sometime…when he wasn’t so distracted.

He brought his blunted nails across Madara's back, relishing in the shudder Madara gave off, so he did it again and was rewarded with the same reaction. Madara pulled away, groaning. “If you keep doing that,” he breathed, “I’m going to—”

The door slammed open and Izuna’s panicked voice shouted, “Madara! I think Toka’s my soulmate—”

There was a dead silence as both men snapped their heads to the side to look at the unannounced intruder. Izuna eyed them for a moment, frozen by shock and they did the same. They just sat there, completely still for what felt like hours, too stunned to so much as move. Izuna’s shock ran out first.

“Oh, sweet miserable hell!” he howled, slapping a hand over his face, as though to cover himself from the view. He doubled over, the other hand over his stomach. “My poor eyes! What the fuck did I just see!? I’m never going to be the same again! My poor virgin eyes! I’m never going to be able to sleep again! Oh, the nightmares are going to be brutal. I think I’m going to be sick…oh god, I’m going to be sick!”

Tobirama slowly laid his head back down on the cushion and closed his eyes as Izuna continued shouting, choosing to just ignore him for a moment as he tried to push down his embarrassment.

“Izuna!” Madara shouted, cutting him off mid-rant. The younger brother immediately shut up. “Get out!”

Tobirama heard scurrying footsteps and the door slamming shut. He felt Madara's body above him slump forward until the sensation of warm breath was felt on his neck. “I’m going to kill him for real this time,” Madara muttered.

Tobirama couldn’t help the breathless laugh that slipped out of his mouth at that. “Has his timing always been this bad?”

“My mother went into labor with him on the battlefield,” Madara informed him dryly, confirming Tobirama’s question. “I am so sorry about this. I thought that the oaf knew how to knock, but I guess he’s never done that here. I should have known better.”

“It’s alright,” Tobirama assured him. “I’m not upset, quite the opposite, actually. This is going to have emotional ramifications for him for a while. If anything, he’s the one that’s going to be upset for a while.”

Madara snorted. “Good, it’ll teach him how to knock.”

With the mood officially murdered, Madara rolled off Tobirama and got to his feet, holding his hand out for the other man to take. Tobirama grabbed the proffered hand and allowed Madara to help him to his feet.

“I think we might need to reschedule this date,” Tobirama said. “I really enjoyed myself and would love to have dinner with you. Judging from what Izuna said, however, I think that he might need to talk to you.”

Madara's eyes widened. He had obviously forgotten the entire reason that Izuna had barged inside of his house in the first place. “You’re right,” he said. “I’ll go and find him. Would you like me to walk you back to your house first?”

“That’s alright,” Tobirama replied, moving to the kitchen and grabbing his bags out of Madara's fridge. “He probably really needs you now, considering that he had already been stressed before walking into the house while we were…” Tobirama trailed off, pointedly not looking at Madara as he felt his cheeks warm. “Yes, well…he needs you.”

He saw Madara walking toward him and felt himself being pulled into a tight hug, one that he reciprocated. Madara pulled away and kissed him slowly and chastely one last time. “No need to be embarrassed. I quite liked what we were doing when Izuna barged in.”

Tobirama snorted at this. He had enjoyed it himself. “I’ll see you later, Madara. Don’t be too hard on him until the entire soulmate thing is figured out, then smack him for barging in for me.”

“I think I can do that,” Madara told him as they walked to the door. Madara opened it for Tobirama and gestured for him to walk out. They walked to the end of the yard together before they went their separate ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's all have a moment of silence for Izuna's nonexistent innocence.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! I loved writing this one, and I hope that you loved reading it just as much! Thanks for stopping by and looking at it! Feel free to tell me what you thought of it!


	11. Argument

“You’re impossible!” Madara shouted angrily at Tobirama. They were standing in the younger man’s living room, glaring at each other, both furious. “I can’t believe that you were so careless! You could have gotten yourself killed!”

“I wasn’t being careless!” Tobirama snapped back at him. “I had everything under control, and we were all fine!”

“That’s not what I heard!” Madara snarled. “I heard that you almost got decapitated… _twice_. It was supposed to be a courier mission with your squad! You had no business stopping by and helping another unit with those children in tow!”

“They’re not kids, Madara,” Tobirama insisted. “Kagami is the youngest out of all of them, and he’s sixteen. We were fighting at seven! That’s a lot different than letting someone that has had experience in the field out to fight! They’re all Jounin and they had a right to be there with me!”

“Really?” Madara demanded incredulously. “The last time I checked, an experienced ninja doesn’t require you to jump in front of them and take three shuriken to the back! They’re not ready, and you’re going to get yourself killed trying to get them there!”

“I say that they’re ready,” Tobirama said, his voice dropping dangerously low. His eyes were narrowed in a way that Madara had come to realize meant that he was walking a dangerous path, straight into a trap. “Do you not trust my judgement?”

_Ah,_ Madara thought tiredly, _there it is._

“I trust you to go too far and get yourself killed,” Madara informed him coldly, not caring that he was buying himself a one-way trip to the doghouse for at least a couple of weeks. “Last week, you were working on a resurrection jutsu! Can you just take a moment to realize exactly how dangerous that is? It could backfire at any moment! Why do you always have to be so reckless? Would it kill you to stop for a few seconds and think everything through before you jump into something!?”

“I don’t want to hear that from you, of all people!” Tobirama sneered. “This is coming from the idiot that decided that it was a good idea to teach a nine-year-old the fireball jutsu! You actually set yourself _on fire_ just a couple of weeks ago!”

“This isn’t about me!” Madara reminded him.

“It’s _never_ about you!” Tobirama shouted back, finally losing his temper. “It’s always about when I mess up, as though when you go out and get yourself hurt, and almost kill yourself that it’s not supposed to be a big deal. Why are you able to take risks and nearly lose your life without any consequences, but it’s the fucking end of the damn world when it happens to me? The last time I checked, Uchiha, we’re both shinobi, and our job descriptions are exactly the same! I’m not a child, and you’re sure as hell not my father, so quit acting like it!”

“Don’t you _ever_ compare me to that bastard,” Madara growled at him, positively seeing red. “I’ve _never_ laid a hand on you, and I never will.” He turned around and walked to the door.

“Where do you think that you’re going, Uchiha!” Tobirama snarled at him. “We’re not done here!” He heard the other man storming toward him and turned around to glare angrily at him. He felt his chakra draining as his Sharingan activated without his permission. Tobirama faltered when he saw the swirling red irises and looked away. If anything, that frustrated him even more. He hated seeing Tobirama so weary over a piece of him. He knew that Tobirama hated his eyes and it ate away at him every time that he thought about it.

“We’re done,” Madara said quietly.

“What do you mean by that?” Tobirama asked. His voice was still sharp and angry, but Madara could hear the hurt in it. It made him feel guilty, but Tobirama wasn’t the only one that was hurt.

“I don’t care anymore,” Madara snapped, opening the door. “You can decide that for yourself. That’s what you do all the time, anyway.”

He slammed the door behind him and stalked down Tobirama’s pathway. There were a few Senju standing out in the road, and Madara caught their subtle glances his way as he walked out of the yard. He was certain that they had heard the majority of the argument. It wasn’t as though they had been trying very hard to keep their voices down.

He wasn’t even paying attention to where he was going and wasn’t all that surprised when he ended up in front of Hashirama’s house a few minutes later. He knocked on the door and waited. Mito opened the door, and Madara figured that he really must have looked horrible because she didn’t even glare at him.

“Are you alright, Madara?” she asked, moving to let him in.

“No,” Madara admitted, walking into the entryway.

“Uncle Mada!” he looked down and saw Hashirama and Mito’s young child. She was on all fours, crawling quickly toward him. Madara smiled weakly down at her and reached down to scoop her up. She wrapped her stumpy arms around his neck and gave him a drool-covered kiss to his cheek.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Madara greeted her. “Have you been a good girl for your mommy and daddy?”

She was quiet for a few moments, a thoughtful look on her face before she grinned and nodded. “Yes!”

“That’s really good,” Madara told her. “The next time I come over, I’ll bring you a treat, alright? That’s if it’s alright with your mother, of course.”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Mito assured Madara before she brought her hands out in front of her, indicating that she wanted her child back. Madara was all too happy to oblige. He didn’t have the energy to act happy for too much longer. “Hashirama is in the kitchen,” Mito told him. “You can go and see him if that was why you’re here.”

Madara was tempted to tell her that he didn’t know _why_ he was there but opted against it. He just nodded and muttered, “Thanks,” before he walked further into the house. As soon as he had his back to the duo, the fake smile that he’d forced onto his face slipped off, and he suddenly felt so much more tired.

He didn’t say anything as he walked into the kitchen and sat across from Hashirama, who was looking over a scroll of some sort with a small frown on his face. He just silently waited for his friend to finish whatever it was that he was doing. He slumped forward and sat his head on his hands and shut his eyes. A nap sounded so good.

“Are you alright?” Hashirama questioned after a few moments, finally sensing his presence.

Madara didn’t bother opening his eyes. He simply said, “Don’t feel like talking right now. Just finish whatever it is that you’re doing.”

“Are you sure?” Hashirama asked, sounding very concerned.

“Yes, I’m sure,” Madara told him. “Let me think for a few minutes.”

“Alright,” Hashirama conceded. “No problem, I guess. Just let me know if you need anything.”

~~~

Tobirama stalked into the Uchiha compound, so upset that he didn’t know if he wanted to cry, break something or punch Madara directly in the face. They all seemed like viable options to him, but he was at a loss for doing anything. He just walked. He didn’t want to talk to his brother about this. He wanted to speak to someone who had even more experience with dealing with Madara, and there was only one person that Tobirama could think of.

He knocked on Izuna’s door and waited. It took a while for him to answer, and Tobirama almost walked away, assuming that he wasn’t home. Just before he turned around and gave up, the door swung open, showing a very tired Uchiha.

“Didn’t you just get back from a mission, Tobirama?” Izuna questioned. “I figured that you and Madara would be spending the rest of the day together.”

Tobirama just silently shook his head and watched as Izuna covered his mouth to stifle a yawn. “Well, come on in, I guess. You look miserable. Want some tea? I’ve already got hot water in the kettle.”

“That would be nice,” Tobirama replied politely, though his stomach was twisting so badly, he wasn’t sure that he would be able to down any. Izuna led him through his messy living room and to the kitchen where a kettle was sitting on a still-hot heating element. Tobirama sat down at the bar, feeling the last dregs of his energy run out. Getting angry always did this to him.

Tobirama watched as Izuna pulled down two mugs from the cabinet. As he prepared the tea, he was silent. It wasn’t until he had both mugs in his hand and had turned around did he begin speaking. “So,” Izuna said, “what’s gotten you so upset?”

“I think Madara just broke up with me,” Tobirama confessed, grimacing at the hollowness in his chest. There was something about saying it aloud that made everything so much worse.

The next sound was the high-pitched clinking of glass shattering on a floor. Izuna cursed and jumped backward at chakra enhanced speed. Tobirama probably should have been amused by the reaction, but he couldn’t find it in himself to feel anything at all.

“ _What?!”_ Izuna shouted, as he jumped over the mess and came to stand next to Tobirama’s sitting form. “He broke up with you?!” he demanded. “Wait…what do you mean _you think_?! I don’t think that there’s supposed to be a question about it. He either did, or he didn’t.”

Silence. Tobirama just looked down at the countertop, unsure of what to say. “I don’t know,” he whispered finally. “I don’t know what’s going on, all I know is that I have no idea what to do. How am I supposed to fix this, Izuna?” He looked up at his best friend. “You’re his younger brother. Tell me how I can fix this. I can’t lose him.”

“I…” Izuna trailed off, his voice uncertain. “I can’t tell you that. I don’t know what to say, Tobi. Just give it a little while, I guess. Try and get your head straight, and maybe you’ll be able to come up with something yourself.”

Tobirama wanted to be mad at Izuna for not having the answers that he was looking for, but he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything other than the hollow sadness that was starting to eat its way through his chest. He felt weak from grief, and it had only been a little while. What was going to happen as this went on? Would he start shattering?

“I should go,” Tobirama mumbled.

He went to push himself off the stool, but he felt warmth on his hand before he could move. “Don’t go,” Izuna said. “You’re in no state to be by yourself right now. I won’t say anything, and I won’t bother you, but you should stay here where you can at least have someone here to speak to if you need it.”

“Alright,” Tobirama agreed, seeing the sense in the request. He really didn’t need to be alone.

 

A full week had gone by and nothing had changed. He and Madara hadn’t spoken to one another, and Tobirama wasn’t sure if it was because he was upset at the other man, or if it was because he didn’t know what to say to him if they were to try and talk.

Hashirama knew, that much was obvious by the pitying looks he kept sending his way. He had gotten off early every day, and Hashirama had suggested taking a vacation at least three times in the seven days that had passed. The only time that Hashirama ever gave him special treatment like that was when he was concerned. Tobirama hadn’t taken advantage of this, however, and had assured his brother that he was fine and did not need a vacation, no matter how far that might be from the truth.

He felt _awful_. He had no energy and had not been able to get more than an hour’s rest per night over the past week. He was certain that it was showing, but he didn’t know what to do to fix it. He laid in bed for hours, praying for unconsciousness, but it never came.

For the seventh day in a row, Hashirama came into his office a couple of hours before he would get off.

“That’s it,” Hashirama said as he closed the door behind him. “I can’t take this anymore. You look sick, Tobirama. You’re pale and exhausted. Go home and get some sleep. Now. Don’t come in tomorrow either. I’m not taking no for an answer. I’m ordering you as your hokage to go and take care of yourself!”

Tobirama just looked up at him blankly, unsure of how to respond. He knew that he couldn’t argue with a direct order like that, but that didn’t stop the entire thing from being pointless. There was nothing that he was going to be able to do. Sleep was impossible, and the pain in his chest wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t something that he was going to be able to fix on his own.

Hashirama seemed to get what he was thinking.

“Just go and talk to him, Tobi,” Hashirama pleaded gently. “He’s torn up over this too. I’ve never seen either of you like this, and it’s over nothing at all.”

“I don’t know what I would tell him even if I did go and talk to him,” Tobirama admitted.

“Apologize to him,” Hashirama said. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what you’re apologizing for. You’re sorry that he’s hurting too, aren’t you?”

“Of course, I am,” Tobirama sighed, resting his head in his hands as he slumped forward on his desk, exhausted. “I don’t want him to hurt. I’ve never wanted to cause him pain.”

“Then you know what you need to do,” Hashirama said. “Before that, though, go and get some sleep. You’re just going to worry him and me if you keep this up.”

“He’s worried about me?” Tobirama asked, guilt sinking in his stomach like a prickly lead weight.

“He’s very worried,” Hashirama informed him. “You look really bad, Tobirama. When was the last time that you ate?”

Tobirama thought back and when he couldn’t remember, he just shrugged. “I haven’t been hungry,” he admitted.

Hashirama looked at him reproachfully, but he just sighed and said, “Go and get some sleep, Tobi. You might be hungry when you wake up.”

Tobirama doubted it, but he wasn’t in the mood to argue with the other man either. He just nodded pushed himself from his desk. “I still have a lot of work that needs to be done,” Tobirama informed him.

“That’s fine,” Hashirama said. “I’ll get it done for you. Just worry about yourself.”

Tobirama nodded. He didn’t feel like taking the walk all the way home, so he simply did the hand-signs for a teleportation jutsu and flickered himself to his house. Sure, he was tired, but he still had full chakra reserves. Maybe using some of it would help him sleep.

~~~

Madara looked at Tobirama’s door, feeling like an idiot. He had been standing there for well over fifteen minutes. He wanted to knock; he really did, but he didn’t know what to do after Tobirama answered the door.

He’d been a wreck over the past week, and he just wanted whatever had happened between them to be put into the past, never to be looked at again. Tobirama had looked bad and had gotten steadily worse every day that Madara had caught glimpses at him. He’d really messed up and had let his temper get the best of him, so it was his job to fix it.

_‘What if he doesn’t want me to make it better?’_ a dark part of his mind asked. _He might not want me back. After what I said to him, I wouldn’t want me back._

Madara took an involuntary step back at that thought, and he almost left.

_No,_ he thought forcefully. _It doesn’t matter if he might not want anything to do with you. If there’s a chance that you can stop him from hurting, then you need to take it._ It was surprising that Madara didn’t really care about his own happiness anymore. He knew that there was a good chance that Tobirama would reject him and it would hurt, probably more than anything else that he had experienced. He was willing to risk it, however, because he knew that Tobirama mattered to him more than anyone or anything else.

_Man up,_ Madara commanded himself as he took a step forward and knocked on the door and waited, heart pounding as he thought about all the different ways that this could play out. Most of them were really bad.

None of them were even close to the actual truth of what happened. It took Tobirama more than a few minutes to get to the door, and Madara could tell why when he saw the look on Tobirama’s face. The poor man looked exhausted, and he was rubbing his fist into one of his eyes when the door opened. It looked surprisingly childlike, and Madara's heart stuttered at the cuteness of the action alone.

Tobirama immediately stopped the action when he and Madara locked eyes. “Hey,” Madara said quietly, his resolve diminishing. He suddenly felt terrified and wondered if there was a way that he would be able to run away without making it look like he was running away. Somehow, he didn’t think that there was. Tobirama was much too smart to fall for anything that he would be able to come up with.

“Hi,” Tobirama responded, his voice was just as low.

“Did I wake you up?” Madara asked guiltily. It was obvious that the other man hadn’t been sleeping, and he hated the thought of disturbing him when he had finally laid down.

“No,” Tobirama told him, though Madara couldn’t tell if he was lying. “I…I haven’t been sleeping a lot lately. I imagine that I just look tired.”

Madara wanted to reprimand him for not taking care of himself, but he remembered that reprimanding Tobirama was what their argument had started with. He decided to hold back on that. Tobirama knew that this was bad for him.

“Can I come in?” Madara asked. If they were going to talk, he would rather be in privet than out where everyone else could see them.

Tobirama nodded and moved out of the way. Madara walked into the living room and waited long enough for Tobirama to shut the door behind him before he blurted out. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean anything that I said last Friday. Everything just got out of control, and I let my temper get the best of me. It’s no excuse, I know, and I don’t blame you if you’re still pissed, but I thought that you deserve to know that I know that I was being an asshole.”

Tobirama slowly walked away from the doorway, toward Madara. He was silent until he was standing may a foot from him. “You don’t have to apologize, Madara,” Tobirama told him quietly. “I know that you were upset because I got hurt and you were worried. You were upset because you care about me. There’s no need to apologize for that.”

Then he saw Tobirama reach out and felt his soulmate’s hand against his chest a moment later. It took him a moment to realize what Tobirama was telling him was that he wasn’t angry at him anymore. He was saying that he didn’t blame Madara.

Madara inhaled sharply as he grabbed Tobirama’s hand and yanked him forward. He wrapped his arm around Tobirama’s neck and pulled him down, crushing their lips together. He brought his other hand up and cupped Tobirama’s cheek. He pulled away quickly and settled his forehead against the other’s. “I’m still so sorry,” Madara whispered. “You were hurting, and I was the reason that you were. I don’t want you to hurt, Tobi.”

Madara felt Tobirama’s hands against either of his cheeks. “As long as you’re here with me, any pain that I go through will always be worth it. I need you in my life now, and it’s going to take a lot more than an argument to get me to leave you alone.”

Madara couldn’t help the smile that twitched onto his lips at that. “I’m glad to know that.”

The next kiss that they shared was slow and sweet, causing Madara's heart so pound so hard that he knew that Tobirama had to have felt it. He was happy that he could, however. He needed to know what he did to him. Madara was sure to keep it chaste, mindful of how tired Tobirama was. He was tired himself, and now that he knew that Tobirama still cared about him and was willing to take him back, the exhaustion felt like it was going to consume him at any moment.

“Come on,” Tobirama whispered quietly after they parted. “Why don’t we go and take a nap? I’d like to take you out to dinner tonight if you would let me.”

“I’d like that,” Madara admitted. He felt Tobirama’s lips against his forehead and closed his eyes at the sensation.

“Come on,” Tobirama murmured to him. He let go of Madara's face and grabbed his hand, dragging him toward the back of the house and into his bedroom. They practically fell out of their shirts and shoes before basically floating to the bed and settling in. They fell asleep within the first couple of minutes with Tobirama’s head settled on Madara's chest.

Their date would have to be postponed again, however, because neither of them would wake up until morning.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sure that this probably made a lot of people sad at first. It made me feel like a debbie downer when I was proofing it. I hope that everyone enjoyed the happy ending to the chapter all the same. There will be one more chapter to this story before it is over. No need in overstretching it and making it boring and pointless to read, no matter how happy that might make me, because I really have enjoyed it.
> 
> Anyways, like always, I hope that you have enjoyed the chapter and feel free to stop for a moment and let me know what you thought!


	12. Love

Madara had been sleeping rather well. With all that he had seen in his life, there was little hopes of pleasant dreams, but it was always nice to have a sleep that was dreamless. It was the first one that he’d been able to have in over a week, so he would normally be very cross if he were woken up early on his day off. There were only two people that could get into his house without setting off the various alarms that he had armed his place with. He was certain that he had narrowed it down to exactly who it was just by the way that he was woken up. It certainly wasn’t Izuna, which meant that….

“Tobirama,” Madara whispered contentedly, his eyes still shut as he felt soft lips graze across his cheeks and press against his own, slightly parted lips gently.

“Good morning,” he heard his soulmate murmur against his mouth. He wasn’t sure if he heard Tobirama speak, or just felt the vibrations from his deep voice. Either way, Madara just smiled sleepily at the greeting. It really was a good morning now. He felt the bed next to him dip and knew that Tobirama had set his hand down on the mattress. When he felt Tobirama moving from his personal space, Madara immediately shot his hand out and wrapped an arm around the other man’s neck, pulling him back down.

He heard Tobirama let out a small laugh underneath his breath before he felt lips ghost against his forehead. “Someone’s awfully needy this morning.”

“Your fault,” Madara grunted. It was true. The other man had spoiled him, and now Madara felt as though it served him right to deal with the consequences of a demanding Uchiha. “Lay down with me.”

“I’d love to,” Tobirama informed him, “but that’s kind of hard to do with your arms around me.”

“Deal with it,” Madara commanded, pulling again. Tobirama must have gotten the message and leaned down again to kiss Madara again. It was just a chaste peck on the lips, but it was enough to make Madara's chest tingle and his heart skip a beat. He felt a bit more awake, but he wasn’t inclined to move out of bed regardless of that fact.

“Let go, and I’ll get in on the other side,” Tobirama assured him. Madara felt a hand brush across his cheek and warmth spread through him. Every time they touched, Madara felt the warmth from happiness settle in his gut, reminding him exactly of what they had together.

Madara opened his eyes for the first time and looked up at Tobirama, who was awkwardly hunched over him. He didn’t look as though he was upset, however. A small smile was curled on his lips as he looked down at Madara in what seemed to be adoration and amusement.

“One more kiss first,” Madara bargained.

Tobirama breathed out another laugh before he leaned down again and connected their lips. This was lingering, though just as soft as the other two. Tobirama’s lips brushed against his so gently at first that Madara could barely feel it before pressing more firmly against him, sealing their lips together for a few moments, just sitting there. Madara wasn’t complaining, the sensation alone of being so close was pleasant enough to put a smile on his face when they parted.

“If all of those civilians and shinobi could see you now,” Tobirama murmured to him, “then they wouldn’t fear you anymore. You’re nothing more than a giant, cuddly teddy bear.”

Madara snorted. “Don’t give away my secret. It’s a lot easier to have them afraid. They listen better that way.”

“Using fear to control others,” Tobirama said, raising an eyebrow at him, “that’s kind of forceful, isn’t it?”

“Maybe,” Madara replied. “You got a problem with it?”

“Nope,” Tobirama said, leaning down to give him one last kiss. “It’s sexy. I like it.”

Madara felt himself chuckling at that as he released his soulmate and watched as Tobirama walked around the bed and crawled onto the mattress a moment later. He pulled the blankets to his waist and turned so that he was facing Madara, his head against his shoulder. Madara absently reached out and wrapped his arm around Tobirama, pulling him even closer as he rolled onto his side.

“You’re in a good mood this morning,” Madara observed.

“Hashirama gave me the day off too,” Tobirama said. “I was reluctant at first, but he promised me that he would have his work finished before he went home today.”

“If he doesn’t,” Madara remarked, “we could always go after him together. He’s good, but I don’t think that he could easily take both of us down in a fight.”

He felt Tobirama smiling against the bare skin of his chest, where the other man had his face buried. “We don’t even have to do that,” Tobirama informed him. “We could always just set Mito on him. From what I can tell, the pregnancy hormones are starting to properly kick in. Hashirama insists that she’s terrifying at this point in her pregnancy.”

Madara laughed at that and tangled his hand into Tobirama’s hair, massaging his scalp with the pads of his fingers. “Sounds like we could use her as a threat to ward off other nations.”

“That’s actually a good idea,” Tobirama mused. “We might have to run that by my brother. Do you think that he would go for it?”

“Who cares?” Madara asked humorously. “She’s going to be after him when they see this display. I don’t think that he gets a choice in it.”

Tobirama chuckled and nuzzled closer to Madara, letting out a contented sigh. “Let’s stop talking about Hashirama. He’s the last thing I want to think about when I’m in your bed with you.”

Madara felt his smile widen as he raised an eyebrow at the wording that the other man had used. “Is there something else that you would prefer to occupy your mind?”

“Hmmm,” Tobirama hummed against his chest. The vibrations almost tickled, and Madara had to fight back a snort at the sensation. “I don’t know.” The words were quickly contradicted by the hand that Madara felt between them. Madara felt Tobirama’s open palm against his stomach and it pushed. Madara got the memo and rolled so that he was laying on his back.

Tobirama was above him a moment later, straddling his hips as the blanket slid back to settle somewhere around Madara's thighs, not that he was paying much attention to something so trivial. He looked up at Tobirama, who was grinning down at him, like a cat about to strike its pray. This was the only situation in which Madara would be alright with being compared to a mouse.

As he looked up at Tobirama, a terrifying realization hit him like a jutsu to the chest. He was staring at his entire world. Nothing else mattered to him as much as the man above him. Sure, he loved his brother and his friends and losing them would hurt, but he couldn’t fathom the pain of losing this man. He needed Tobirama like he needed to breathe. Not only did he need him around, he _wanted_ him there too. He wanted to see him every day smiling and laughing. He wanted to be the one that made Tobirama so happy.

Tobirama leaned down and kissed Madara, slowly and deeply, his tongue caressing Madara’s in a way that made his toe’s curl. Madara reached up and cupped Tobirama’s cheek, stroking the skin slowly, unable to resist the temptation. He couldn’t help himself as he grabbed Tobirama’s hip with his other hand and rolled them over so that Tobirama was nestled beneath him. Madara had never taken his hand off the other man’s face.

When they parted, Tobirama seemed to realize that the playful mood between them had faded away. His grin slowly faded, and he tilted his head to the side ever so slightly, his eyes alight with curiosity. Madara felt his heart thud in his chest, and the need to be even closer to his soulmate started burning through his body. He leaned down and kissed him again, this time urgently, not letting up so either of them could breathe as he mapped out Tobirama’s mouth for what had to be the thousandth time.

“What’s gotten into you?” Tobirama asked as they parted. His voice was low and panting. He sounded as breathless as Madara felt.

“I love you,” Madara murmured. It wasn’t blurted out or panicked as he spoke. It was simply the truth. “I think I have for a while now, but I just didn’t know it. I didn’t realize it until you were staring at me, and I was certain that you were all I’ve ever wanted. I…I just think that you need to know that. You need to know exactly how much power you have over me. I’d do _anything_ for you without thinking twice about it. We may bicker often, and sometimes we might say things that we don’t mean, but you’re my entire world, and I don’t think I could live a day without you.”

Tobirama was silent as Madara spoke, just looking up at him with a small smile on his face

“I love you too,” Tobirama informed him. “You mean everything to me. You don’t have to worry about living without me, because I know that I won’t be able to live without you either.”

Madara reached down and grabbed Tobirama’s hand, intertwining their fingers together as he leaned down again and kissed his love. Perfectly content to forget the outside world and live in this small moment of happiness and bliss with his soulmate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I hope you liked it! It was only a short chapter, but I figured that it would give them a nice, happy ending. Feel free to let me know what you thought of the story as a whole. I would simply adore your opinions on this spur-of-the-moment idea that I had about a month ago.
> 
> Oh yeah, and I was thinking about doing a bonus chapter about Izuna and Toka from a couple of chapter ago. Would you like to see how Izuna figured out that Toka was his soulmate?


End file.
